The Diary of a Provincial Lady has become my unexpected favourite book of the year. Its unassuming and self-deprecating title very much sets the tone for the four parts of E.M. Delafield’s semi-autobiographical novel, as the main character from a small village in Devon embarks on a successful literary career that takes her first to… Continue reading Mrs Dalloway as a Provincial Lady
Category: Reviews
Feminist Barbie
Spoiler alert! So I did go and see the “Barbie” (2023) film after all. And I wasn’t disappointed. Yes, it’s all pink and girlie to start with, but the parallel universe that is Barbieland is soon exposed to be as hollow and as plasticky as it looks. Even for a child of the eighties who… Continue reading Feminist Barbie
Hunting the regicides in America – Robert Harris’s Act of Oblivion
The Act of Indemnity and Oblivion passed after the Restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 was a general act of pardon for those who had acted against Charles I in the English Civil War and its aftermath. It was intended as a reconciliation between the incoming King Charles II and his… Continue reading Hunting the regicides in America – Robert Harris’s Act of Oblivion
The Other Black Girl and the Power of Hair
Nella works at Wagner in New York. But life in the publishing world is not easy for a young black woman, especially as the only black person in the office. So Nella is excited when Hazel, a new black colleague, arrives. They go for lunch, compare notes on colleagues and cringe together over their white… Continue reading The Other Black Girl and the Power of Hair
Remembering the Holodomor
Erin Litteken tells the story of four generations of women of an American family. At the centre of the story is Cassie, the young widow, who struggles to come to terms with her husband’s recent death in an accident. She lives in Wisconsin with her little daughter Birdie, who has not spoken since her father… Continue reading Remembering the Holodomor
Passengers
I have just finished reading Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’ The Passenger, the story of a Jewish businessman trying to escape the Nazis in the wake of Kristallnacht. The novel opens on 9 November with a visit of Nazi officers to the Berlin flat of Otto Silbermann which sees one of his few remaining friends attacked, while the… Continue reading Passengers
Risk and Controversy – The Life of Mary Wortley Montagu
The story of a woman who has her children inoculated against the smallpox at a time when most people, including the medical establishment, were highly sceptical towards such foreign practices certainly makes for timely reading during a pandemic. Sometimes it is worth taking a small risk to avoid a larger one. Mary Wortley Montagu learnt… Continue reading Risk and Controversy – The Life of Mary Wortley Montagu
Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun takes on the big questions
During the pandemic I have started reading more fiction again, and any new book arriving through the post has been greeted with some excitement. Yet, I had pre-ordered Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel with a mix of both eager anticipation and an ever-so-slight fear of disappointment. I had liked Ishiguro long before anybody thought of giving… Continue reading Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun takes on the big questions
On Misogyny, ancient and modern
Mary Beard’s Women and Power is one of those books that will make you shout: “Yes, she’s so right!” – “Very well put!” – “So glad someone is saying this!” For those of you who haven’t read it yet, the book consists of two essays on ‘The public voice of women’ and ‘Women in power’… Continue reading On Misogyny, ancient and modern
The eloquent ideologists of Germany’s New Right
Thugs in combat boots they’re certainly not. The people Volker Weiss writes about are more of the nerdy variety, he told me over the phone a while back. They know their Greek and Latin, but that doesn’t necessarily make them harmless. It’s their words and their ideas we should be wary of. Weiss is a… Continue reading The eloquent ideologists of Germany’s New Right