Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget

This strange and beautiful novel was published in 1921, perfectly positioned among Stella Benson's Living Alone (1919), David Garnett's Lady Into Fox (1922) and Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes (1926). All belong to the category of fantasy that allows the fantastical to live alongside the mundane, without comment or criticism, although mild resentment may be present, … Continue reading Walter de la Mare, Memoirs of a Midget →

Laline Paull, The Bees

As ever, seduced by a spine, I swooped on The Bees while passing its shelf in the bookshop, solely because of the gorgeous yellow cover. Imagine my delight when I find that this was shortlisted for the Women's Prize, and is a science fictional fantasy novel about a beehive. What could go wrong? And really, … Continue reading Laline Paull, The Bees →

The 1947 Club: Mistress Masham’s Repose by T H White

I reread this less-known novel by T H White for the #1947Club because I had a Folio Club edition that I’d never read. My paperback copy of Mistress Masham’s Repose fell apart through overuse many years ago, so I was very happy to find this large, illustrated, embossed edition in a fancy cardboard slipcase, lurking under … Continue reading The 1947 Club: Mistress Masham’s Repose by T H White →

Ngaio Marsh’s Death in a White Tie

This week's classic detective fiction podcast scripts catch-up from Why I Really Like This Book is on the tremendous New Zealand author Ngaio Marsh (pronounced NYE-oh). Death In A White Tie (1938) is from the same period as Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise, and shares a theme of a high society drugs racket with Murder Must Advertise and with Darkness … Continue reading Ngaio Marsh’s Death in a White Tie →

T H White’s Darkness at Pemberley

T H White's Darkness at Pemberley, from the Why I Really Like This Book podcast scripts catch-up, is the second of his two detective novels. Neither did particularly well. He is most famous for The Sword in the Stone in 1938, which he rewrote and expanded into the tetralogy The Once and Future King. Disney made its most … Continue reading T H White’s Darkness at Pemberley →

T H White’s The Once and Future King

In this Really Like This Book podcast script catch-up from the King Arthur mini-series, I’m going to pause briefly to remind you that Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur is the main source for modern retellings of the stories about King Arthur. The best twentieth-century retelling, in my considered opinion, is the tetralogy by T H White called The Once … Continue reading T H White’s The Once and Future King →

The language of the invaded in Paul Kingsnorth’s The Wake

This is the strangest and most powerful novel I’ve read in a long time. The strangeness and power come from its eerie, invented, ghost of early English, positioned some way between the impenetrableness of Anglo-Saxon and the Englishes more familiar to the eye from the medieval period. Even though this is completely inauthentic, because Paul … Continue reading The language of the invaded in Paul Kingsnorth’s The Wake →