Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Music at Long Verney

I pounced on this short story collection in a second-hand bookshop in the Lanes in Brighton, silently crying 'Why have I never heard of you before?' (and on typing that I realised that I really must, MUST join the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society, and did so.) I hadn't paid enough attention to STW's short story … Continue reading Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Music at Long Verney →

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 →

E F Benson and Dodo’s Daughter

This time in the Really Like This Book podcast scripts catch-up I’m reading a novel of utter frivolity. It’s called Dodo’s Daughter, and is a sequel to the earlier and unforgettably frivolous novel of Edwardian society life, Dodo. Dodo is a ditzy lady, invented by that great chronicler of society silliness, E F Benson. Nowadays … Continue reading E F Benson and Dodo’s Daughter →

Rose Macaulay’s The Lee Shore

Today's novel from the Really Like This Book's podcast scripts catch-up is about art: buying it, faking it, selling it, advising on it, collecting it, and valuing your life by what you say about it. Rose Macaulay’s novel The Lee Shore really is completely forgotten, but is a fascinating read. It’s one of a clutch … Continue reading Rose Macaulay’s The Lee Shore →

E M Delafield’s The Diary of a Provincial Lady

This week on the Really Like This Book's podcast scripts catch-up I’m looking at a total classic, E M Delafield’s The Diary of a Provincial Lady. * This great comic novel from 1930 has never been out of print, and is the quintessential British women’s middlebrow novel from the 1930s. Yet, I’m not sure that many people know … Continue reading E M Delafield’s The Diary of a Provincial Lady →

Resisting war: Rose Macaulay’s Non-Combatants and Others

Today’s Really Like This Book's podcast script catch-up about political fiction is about a novel that's 100 years old: Non-Combatants and Others, from 1916. It’s by the British novelist, journalist and traveller Rose Macaulay, and is set in London during the early part of the First World War. I need to pause here to crow (SQUEEE!) and … Continue reading Resisting war: Rose Macaulay’s Non-Combatants and Others →

A G Macdonell and England, Their England

Today’s letter in the Really Like This Book's podcast script rerun is M. A G Macdonell’s England, Their England, from 1933, is a satirical novel about English society, and has long had a grip on my understanding of the English. I was (am) a hybrid Anglo-Scot, never quite accepted by my Scottish school-friends or my English cousins … Continue reading A G Macdonell and England, Their England →

The silence of the persecutors in Dorothy Edwards’ Rhapsody

The stories in Dorothy Edwards’ collection Rhapsody (1927) are short and slight, and had been completely forgotten twice over. This acclaimed but lamentably not very prolific author was enthusiastically adopted by Bloomsbury who recognised an affinity with Katherine Mansfield in her faux-naif narrative style, but then edged her out when she didn’t obey their rules and started … Continue reading The silence of the persecutors in Dorothy Edwards’ Rhapsody →

Rose Macaulay’s Potterism

I wrote this podcast for Why I Really Like This Book for a miniseries called Fictions about Newspapers. Journalism is something I’ve dabbled in enough to know that I’m no good at it. I can write reviews, but I have no nous when it comes to news, and I am not hard-boiled. But I do … Continue reading Rose Macaulay’s Potterism →

Not so much the books I bought, but WHY

I read a lot of book blog posts gloating about bookish treasure finds, but I’m more interested in finding out why they spend the money, not what it was on. This is my most recent tally, which cost me £24.50, very good value. The proprietor held me in conversation on the merits of Ian Dury, with which I … Continue reading Not so much the books I bought, but WHY →