Tag Archives: The Guardian

Guardian Review links

Posted on by

If you’re interested in the Brontes and Anne in particular you might find this article interesting. It’s a review of a book called Take Courage: Anne Bronte and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis.

As a teenager I went on a Thomas Hardy binge and read most of his books, so I was interested in reading a review by Dinah Birch of Thomas Hardy: Half a Londoner by Mark Ford.

We’re approaching the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death and the historian Lucy Worsley writes here about why such a well loved author remains so mysterious.

Last but not least Susanna Rustin looks at the career of Winifred Holtby here.

People at Play by Elizabeth Berridge

Posted on by
People at Play cover

When Endeavour Press asked me if I would like to be sent an ebook of People at Play by Elizabeth Berridge I had to google her as I had never heard of her before. Anyway, I decided to accept the book offer as going by her Guardian obituary it seemed like she was a good writer.

To begin with I was a bit unsure because the main character Stani seemed to dislike redheads, that’s not something that I’m going to find reasonable, but it turned out that he was a bit of a weird chap.

The setting is mainly London in the 1960s when World War 2 still seemed quite recent and there were people living there who had been wartime refugees of various nationalities and still didn’t seem to be fitting in, especially amongst themselves.

Stani has a room in the house that he and his mother had lived in when they first got to Britain and he’s now a sort of caretaker, letting out the other rooms to various types. The house is owned by Mrs Bannister and she has decamped to a large old house not too far away in the suburbs near Richmond, it feels like the country to her. Just after the war her husband had decided that he wanted his freedom and he gave her the large house on condition that she looked after his two rather dotty elderly cousins.

Mrs Bannister realises that it is his way of dumping all his responsibilities on her, but she decides to take it all on and change the house into a home for the elderly. There are a lot of quirky characters, young and old, and nothing is quite as it seems to be.

I enjoyed this book and will look out for more of Elizabeth Berridge’s books. My thanks go to Endeavour Press for sending me this ebook.

Guardian links

Posted on by

I had intended to do a blogpost about the books that I got at Christmas but, there are so many of them and I still have to take photos, so I’m just doing this quick post to interesting articles in the Guardian Review section.

There’s an article here about six women writers, by Alex Clark: Beryl Bainbridge, Angela Carter, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Molly Keane, Jenny Diski and Anita Brookner. Some of my favourite writers although I haven’t read anything at all by Jenny Diski. Have you?

Just when you thought that all the books about Elizabeth I of England had been written – up pops another one by John Guy called Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years.

Last but not least, if you enjoy Emile Zola’s books as I do you’ll be interested in this article about his time in London in 1898.

Guardian Review links

Posted on by

I’ve really enjoyed the few Maggie O’Farrell books that I’ve read fairly recently, so I was interested in reading her article My working day ‘A book has its own engine that is always running somewhere at the back of your mind’ You can read the article here.

There’s an article by A.S. Byatt which you can read here.

There’s a new TV drama about the Bronte sisters coming on soon and Sally Wainwright talks to Tracy Chevalier about the siblings here.

If you can stand to read anything about politics you might find this article interesting. Siri Hustvedt is writing about feminism, the arts-science divide and misogyny in the presidential election.

Guardian Review links

Posted on by

As usual it was today (Sunday) before I got around to reading the Guardian Review section.

I was particularly interested in this article by Miranda Carter – Dining with death Crime fiction’s long affair with food, about fictional detectives and how food plays a prominent part in the genre. Nero Wolfe, Sherlock Holmes, Poirot. Maigret, Sam Spade, Montalbano … the list goes on. Food was important to them all. Sadly there is no mention of Gamache and the bistro in Louise Penny’s Three Pines series. I do think it’s mainly a male thing though – this lingering on food. The female writers often used food as a means of getting poison into a victim I think. There’s probably a Ph.D thesis in it for someone!

There’s an article about lyrics as literature, inspired by Bob Dylan winning the Nobel prize for literature. You can read it here. I’m not impressed by the committee’s choice this year – what do you think about it?

The wartime diaries of Astrid Lindgren A World Gone Mad – have just been published. You can read a review of it here.

I must admit that I’ve somehow missed the Pippi Longstocking books completely. I’ve been catching up with the children’s classics that I missed out on as a child recently. Should I read Pippi Longstocking? Advise me please!

Brexit, dudefood and hygge

Posted on by

Did you hear that the three newest words to be added to the Oxford English Dictionary are:

Brexit – unsurprisingly, and I’m sick to death of the horrible word.

dudefood – apparently food that men like, I’ve never heard the word but it makes me think of a very hot vindaloo curry, what I think of as macho man food.

and …

hygge – pronounced hue-ga. I had heard of that word before, in fact a few weeks ago there was an article in the Guardian about hygge – you can read it here. It’s the Danish art of living cosily. But obviously the word has links with the English word hug. Apparently there are lots of books due to be published on the subject of hygge and I noticed that the word has reached far-flung Aberfeldy as a shop selling woolly hats and socks and such had the word hygge on a card in their window.

I don’t think there’s an equivalent word in English or Scots although I often think of the Scottish phrase ‘coorie doon’ around this time of the year, obviously it means burrowing down, getting nice and comfy on a cold dark night. The idea is similar.

For me coorie-ing doon also includes getting ready for winter. If I had an open fireplace or a wood burning stove I’d no doubt be making sure I had a huge stockpile of wood. In fact I really fancy having a stove just so I would have a good excuse to wood gather.

As it is I make do with buying in emergency tins of soup, just in case we have an awful winter and there are no fresh veggies in the supermarkets. Well it has happened before!

Whatever the season I always have an old shortbread tin full of a selection of chocolate, but it’s particularly important in winter. I wouldn’t get through the cold snaps without chocolate to keep me going.

I have a nice collection of tartan rugs in the living room, essential for coorying into. The adult equivalent of a baby’s comfort blanket.

For me winter means knitting season, my needles are poised for action and I’ll be plundering my wool stockpile soon. I’m flicking through knitting patterns at the moment.

Any night now I’ll be swivelling the top of one of my tables around, doubling the size of the table top, making it just perfect for a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Winter is jigsaw season and the first one I do will be of a vintage travel poster – anyone been to Eastbourne?!

I can never understand these people who keep their curtains open in the evening, even when there’s snow on the ground and a howling wind. On cold dark nights I love to get the curtains closed as soon as it begins to get dark, shut the night out, get the kettle on and listen out for the biscuits shouting – eat me!

What about you – what’s your idea of winter comfort or hygge?

Guardian links from the Review

Posted on by

I’ve just finished reading The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard. It’s the first book in the Cazalet series (I’ve yet to blog about it) and I’m trying to get my hands on the second one as I really want to get back to that family. Anyway, I noticed an article about Elizabeth Jane Howard in the Guardian Review section this morning, if you’re interested you can read it here. It’s by Artemis Cooper who has just written a book about Howard.

Elizabeth Jane Howard

The photo above is of Elizabeth Jane Howard with her then husband Kingsley Amis. Like many writers she was a bit of a conundrum herself I think. On a frivolous note I wonder if she ever regretted sticking her middle name on her books – I know I would have if I had been her.

There’s an article about the ghost stories that E. Nesbit wrote for adults, it’ll be Halloween before we know it so it might be of interest to anyone reading books for that spooky season. You can read the article here.

I’ve always been interested in children’s books but in recent years I’ve become quite distant from what’s going on, mainly due to having no small people in my life at the moment. I must admit though that I still do buy children’s books if I happen to see any with beautiful illustrations. So I was interested in this Children’s roundup by Imogen Russell Williams.

If Shakespeare is more your cup of tea you might like to read Margaret Atwood’s article on rewriting The Tempest for the 21st century.

Bookish Links to the Guardian

Posted on by

There are quite a few interesting bookish articles in this Saturday’s Guardian.

You might be interested in reading le Carre on le Carre from the Weekend section. I think we have all of his books but I have yet to read any of them.

If you’re a fan of Val McDermid you can read an article by her here.

There’s an article on Ann Patchett here.

There’s an article about a biography of Beryl Bainbridge here.

There’s an article on a book about Monet’s waterlily paintings, read it here if you’re interested.

I have a feeling that most bookish people are inclined to be shy, as I am, so if that describes you too you might like to read this article – Shrinking Violets: A Field Guide to Shyness by Joe Moran.

I Capture the Castle – from the Guardian

Posted on by

The Guardian review section this week has an article about Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle by Evie Wyld in it that you might be interested in reading if you are a fan, you can read it here. I enjoyed the book when I read it for the first time fairly recently – probably I would have loved it more had I read it when I was much younger. I have since enjoyed some of her other books even more.

Apart from reading the Guardian I’ve been busy touring around with Peggy, with Jack doing the driving. You can read her post on Cove here.