literary hoohah
'Tis the season for all things Christmas, but I for one am still thinking about Halloween and all things Gothic... partly because I love Halloween, but also because I recently did two things that have made the Gothic stick in my mind: attending the Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination exhibition at The British Library,… Continue reading Fancy A Little Gothic With Your Christmas?
I think we can all agree that a mythology has grown around Sylvia Plath and her husband Ted Hughes. Both her writing and her short life were undoubtedly remarkable, but it is also the fact of Hughes' control over what was published or not published after her death that has gained notoriety and drawn endless… Continue reading Can We Agree On No More Sylvia Plath Biographies?
When we learn about trauma, we also learn about catharsis, about 'getting it out' and finding closure. About having a cathartic experience. This is why we read books about war and suffering, why survivor testimonies are always popular books in whatever form they may take - from the wonder of writers like Primo Levi, to… Continue reading In Praise Of: Sad Stories
So opens The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart. Life is simple when it is only one thing, when it is all that we know. It is only when our world is broken that life becomes complicated. The simplicity of Polly's life comes through fear of her father, Silas. He is her daily torment and she has… Continue reading “It is not uncommon, when one is young, to think that life is simple.”
There was buzz around this novel a long time before publication. I started seeing the #thisbeautiful hashtag on Twitter in I think May, a full five months before the publication date. Promotion seems to be starting earlier and earlier for books these days! As long as we keep it up and don't forget the books… Continue reading #thisbeautiful : Growing Up in the 1970s
I mentioned The Undertaker's Daughter in my post about 'simplifying women' in book titles. Kate Mayfield is more than just the daughter of an undertaker, of course; but the title is warranted here as this book covers the first part of her life, when she mostly lived at home, and when her father was an… Continue reading The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield
I recently read a book called The Undertaker’s Daughter. It is the memoir of a woman, Kate Mayfield, whose father was indeed an undertaker. She grew up in a ‘funeral home’, as they call them in the States, and was thought of for a long time as the daughter of the undertaker and not much else.… Continue reading More Than A Daughter: The Problem With Simplifying Women
Like most people, I think, I saw the film version of Breakfast at Tiffany's before I read the book. The film itself is so famous, so remembered for the iconic images of Audrey Hepburn with her pearls, and her sunglasses, and her cigarette in its holder, that I think sometimes the details of the story… Continue reading Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (Part of the Capote Readathon)
In the interests of my making my blog as varied and interesting as possible, and also to stop it from becoming what Kim Forrester recently called “ another (unpaid) marketing cog in the machine”, I have decided to start a new series - In Praise Of. So what will I be praising? Firstly it won’t… Continue reading In Praise Of
Today (8th September) in International Literacy Day. This year's theme is 'Literacy and Sustainable Development' - Literacy is one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration. Literacy is a basis for… Continue reading International Literacy Day and Why It Matters
These Little Words 