by Penelope Lively
Really not sure why I downloaded this. It seemed a good idea at the time, I suppose. I have read and enjoyed her short stories – and heard her read from them at CheltLitFest some 20+ years ago. I thought Moontiger was a very good book, if excruciatingly sad.
Well, this book doesn’t do it for me.
by Jane Gardam
I picked this up, as a longtime fan of Jane Gardam’s work (since reading Old Filth). The story is of an aspiring writer and their journey. to be honest, I remember so little about this book, despite having read if very recently, that I am starting to ask myself whether I read it at all!
That said, anything by Gardam is worth reading. I have since lent it to my friend Pat, and if she enjoys it, then the purchase (from a charity shop or book swap) was worthwhile.
by Francesca Wade
A wonderful book. This was recommended to me on my ‘Mr B’s Book Spa’, though I didn’t buy it at the time. Instead, I have borrowed this from the local library and also downloaded it as an audiobook. That way, I can look at the pictures as well as listening to the text.
Johanna Thomas-Corr’s review in The Guardian is subtitled “female autonomy between the wars”. And that is indeed what comes across in the stories related in this book, of four women who lived in Mecklenburgh Square at various times in the early twentieth century. The time was 100 years ago, and yet these women and their activities feel very modern.
Dorothy L Sayers, Hilda Doolittle (HD), Jane Ellen Harrison, Eileen Popwer and Virginia Woolf all lived there during the period in question. Their lives, loves and careers as narrated here give the reader a glimpse of what it might have been like to be a focussed, career-minded and creative woman in the staid, conventional man’s world of the time.
I have recommended this book to several friends. I feel sure that I will come back to it – and I might even buy a paper copy for myself.
A rug and a book 