Archive for the ‘Latest news’ Category
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Writing to save your life
I first read Jane Gardam’s short stories, way back when in my early twenties – such a long time ago now! I was so impressed with the edginess behind the quietly deft writing. She was funny. She was surreal. She knew people and loved their optimism, their sadness and their many flaws. She was endlessly ...
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Women and children first…
I’ve been on a Kate Atkinson binge. This is the result of investing in a rowing machine. I can only row for the necessary 25-30 minutes while listening to crime novels. Enter Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. I’m now on the fifth book, Big Sky – fortunately there is a sixth, so my exercise regime ...
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Dystopian fiction in 5 bites
At the beginning of the year, I was a little obsessed with dystopian fiction. I’d read Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel’s post-pandemic book, published in 2014 in either 2022 or 2023, but hadn’t read either Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (although I thought I had!) or Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. – ...
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Books in 5 Bites – Fairy tales
I first encountered Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber when I was about nineteen or twenty years old. I was interrogating my own relationship with romance, sex and sexuality. Already half in love with the powerful but wounded man (thanks/no thanks Jane Eyre which I read when much younger), Carter’s take on this with the Beauty ...
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The Night Circus in 5 Bites
1. World building – both for what to do and what not to do. Morgenstern’s istorical fantasy world is rich with carefully conceived elements. As a young adult reader, I know I would have fallen for the circus completely, imagined myself one of the performers and created my own story, using Morgenstern’s circus as my ...
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Daisy Johnson in 5 bites
Since the publication of her first book of short stories, Fen, 2016, Johnson has consistently experimented with form, genre and the foundation of her narratives. The standout story in that collection is ‘Fen’ which explores teenage anorexia through a surreal, folkloric lens. Everything Under, 2018 (shortlisted for the Man Booker) is a contemporary re-telling of the ...
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Why you should gobble up Shirley Jackson’s work…
1. ‘The Lottery’ when it was published in The New Yorker in 1948, inspired 1300 people to write in to the magazine. Some were baffled, others outraged and a small percentage wanted to know where in America did this appalling event take place. 2. This short story exemplifies Jackson’s approach to horror. She pushes the ...
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Rebecca in 5 Bites
1. If you think about opening a story with a dream, think again. Daphne du Maurier’s opening of Rebecca has it down to perfection. Mrs de Winter the second’s dream of Manderley combines the surrealism of the dreamscape with a carefully crafted sensory exploration of the wild encroaching on civilisation. The descriptions of the garden ...
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Jane Eyre in 5 bites
Why read Jane Eyre? 1. For Jane herself – a rebellious woman From the opening of Charlotte Bronte’s famous novel, we’re batting for Jane. We first see her, an outsider to the group of ‘contented, happy little children’ grouped winningly around their mamma, sounding like a Victorian family portrait exuding virtue – Jane, the ...
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Books in 5 Bites – a series on books you should read and the reasons why.
What are the hallmarks of gothic fiction? 1. Ghosts and grief 2. Horror and hauntings 3. Portents and powerlessness 4. Real estate and remorse 5. Secrets and sexual awakening Gothic fiction offers both readers and writers a chance to dig into the subconsciousness, to revel in symbolism and venture into the darker side of the ...