Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows

I took a while to get into this sturdy family saga: it was blocking the reading pile for weeks while I struggled to pay it proper attention. Then something clicked, and the peculiarities of The Fountain Overflows (1956) began to attract my attention. At first I thought that it was rather like Rose Macaulay’s Told … Continue reading Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows →

It’s Not You, It’s Me: More Reading Disappointments

Sarah Perry, The Essex Serpent (2016) I know, I know. It’s probably the most popular novel of 2016, winning prizes, praised everywhere in the UK media for months. I was so looking forward to reading this, and I was so damn disappointed. Perhaps it was the reviews, of which ‘one of the most memorable historical … Continue reading It’s Not You, It’s Me: More Reading Disappointments →

Rachel Ferguson’s A Footman for the Peacock: a hatchet job

There is a good novel buried in this sprawling, self-indulgent fantasy of irony and class consciousness. Rachel Ferguson wrote A Footman for the Peacock (1940) right at the beginning of the Second World War: it was her eighth novel and fourteenth book. Comparing it to its immediate predecessor, Alas Poor Lady (1937), one can only assume … Continue reading Rachel Ferguson’s A Footman for the Peacock: a hatchet job →

Rachel Ferguson’s Celebrated Sequels

I posted a blog on Rachel Ferguson's 1934 book of parodies, Celebrated Sequels, on Vulpes Libris. Those pilloried and adored by the superb writer of The Brontes Went to Woolworths include E F Benson, Elizabeth Von Arnim, H G Wells, Sinclair Lewis, Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Louisa M Alcott, Beverley Nichols and E … Continue reading Rachel Ferguson’s Celebrated Sequels →