I found this book of travel writing about the south-west of mid-1950s USA in The Second Shelf, a new antiquarian bookshop in London specialising in works by women. This was only the second book (partly) by a man I've seen there (the other was a lesbian pulp novel apparently written by a man with a … Continue reading J B Priestley and Jacquetta Hawkes, Journey Down a Rainbow
I don’t usually write negative reviews of books, because (1) it’s usually not fair on a writer to pillory them in public, (2) why waste the reader’s time? But sometimes writing a reasoned critical appraisal for the record can be a public service. For those searching online to find out if anyone else hated this book … Continue reading Sorrow and anger: Books I couldn’t finish or wished I hadn’t started
Once again, Brad of The Neglected Books Page and I have a conversation about a big fat book neither of us had read before, by a seriously neglected woman author, Clemence Dane. Broome Stages (1931) is a long family saga of the London theatre, beginning in the very early 1800s, when the first Broome, a country boy … Continue reading The roar of the greasepaint: Clemence Dane’s Broome Stages
