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Kate Macdonald

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Category: animals

Ruth Pavey, Deeper into the Wood

Like many other people during lockdown we had the extravagant idea of buying a bit of woodland. Nothing came of it: we realised that we would feel awkward buying a piece of land as strangers, knowing nothing about it, or who used it and might resent us, so we didn't do any more about it. … Continue reading Ruth Pavey, Deeper into the Wood →

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Kate 21stC, animals, community life, memoirs / diaries, nature, outdoor adventure, political / social commentary, Ruth Pavey, the life of the times Leave a comment March 30, 2023March 30, 2023

Books I Want To Keep

I have read so many duds and books recently that I gave up on because their meh factor was way too high. These are the pearls in a bit of a swamp, the ones I actually finished. Bea Howe, Lady With The Green Fingers. The Life of Jane Loudon I rather unfairly only think of … Continue reading Books I Want To Keep →

Kate 17thC, 19thC, 20thC, 21stC, Alan Garner, Amy Chavez, Amy Stanley, animals, Anne Hill, Bea Howe, biography, community life, Evelyn Waugh, family saga, fashion history, Heywood Hill, history, letters, nature, Pauline Innis, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, the world of work, travelogue, wartime 5 Comments November 12, 2022November 16, 2022

Daughter of the Desert, by Georgina Howell

This biography of Gertrude Bell begins slowly, rockets up to high speed, but goes a bit flumph at the end. As the Guardian's review back in 2006 noted, Howell seems to regard Bell's thwarted love affair with a married man as the central moment of her subject's life, and is not interested enough in the … Continue reading Daughter of the Desert, by Georgina Howell →

Kate 19thC, 20thC, animals, archaeology, architecture, biography, Georgina Howell, history, letters, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, translation, travelogue, wartime 3 Comments April 20, 2022April 20, 2022

Six of the Best

I've been busy, and haven't felt the oomph factor when reading books lately to hurl me into writing about them at length. But here are six good books I recommend, fresh entries from my reading diary. Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age For all you pagans out there, this is a compelling assemblage of the horrific … Continue reading Six of the Best →

Kate 20thC, 21stC, Amy Sherman, animals, archaeology, architecture, art, Barbara Pym, baroque and dramatic, biography, Catherine Nixey, community life, design, history, Margaret Kennedy, middlebrow studies, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, Reni Eddo-Lodge, Scott Weidensaul, the life of the times, the world of work, thriller, travelogue 5 Comments May 27, 2021May 28, 2021

Inaka. Portraits of Life in Rural Japan

A mention of this book popped up on Twitter, and I went straight to the Camphor Press website and bought it. I've never been to Japan, but two family members have, one for a year, and she's been trying to get back there ever since. Japanese books are stacked up in her bedroom, not just … Continue reading Inaka. Portraits of Life in Rural Japan →

Kate 21stC, animals, architecture, autobiography, community life, essays, myth, nature, outdoor adventure, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, travelogue Leave a comment February 20, 2021February 20, 2021

Li Juan, Distant Sunflower Fields

‘Li Juan … may be as far outside the system as Chinese writers are able to get and still publish … Her literary career has taken what she calls “the wild path”’ – The New York Times Distant Sunflower Fields is not a novel, but for readers unfamiliar with life in Xinjiang, in the far … Continue reading Li Juan, Distant Sunflower Fields →

Kate 21stC, animals, autobiography, community life, essays, family saga, Li Juan, nature, outdoor adventure, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work Leave a comment February 12, 2021February 12, 2021

I vent my spleen on duds

Reading good books is a joy. Reading duds is not. Reading when the supply of books through libraries and bookshops and second-hand outlets has been more difficult (though never impossible, unless money is also tight), is more of a commitment. Reading duds in those circumstances is downright annoying. Here is my latest parade of failures. … Continue reading I vent my spleen on duds →

Kate 20thC, 21stC, animals, biography, community life, David Garnett, Edith de Born, Edwardian, historical romance, literary history, middlebrow studies, Naomi Royde-Smith, nature, Neil Gunn, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, publishing, Sarah Knight, the life of the times 3 Comments January 19, 2021

Letters to and from Sylvia Townsend Warner

I've spent the sixteen days since Christmas reading the letters that Sylvia Townsend Warner wrote to and received from two of her most constant and articulate correspondents, David Garnett and William Maxwell. Both books were presents, and shoved aside all other claims from the reading pile. Sylvia and David knew each other in the 1920s, … Continue reading Letters to and from Sylvia Townsend Warner →

Kate 20thC, animals, autobiography, biography, community life, David Garnett, diary, getting published, humour, letters, literary history, memoirs / diaries, nature, passion and secrets, poetry, political / social commentary, short stories, Sylvia Townsend Warner, the life of the times, the world of work, William Maxwell 5 Comments January 11, 2021January 10, 2021

Liz Williams, Miracles of Our Own Making: A History of Paganism

Liz Williams is a very well respected science fiction and fantasy author (see my review of her wonderful novel Comet Weather here), and (until very recently) the co-proprietor of a witchcraft shop in Glastonbury. I have professional dealings with her, in that she spoke on a panel on women in sff that I was running. … Continue reading Liz Williams, Miracles of Our Own Making: A History of Paganism →

Kate 21stC, animals, archaeology, community life, Liz Williams, myth, nature, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, vaguely horror 3 Comments April 19, 2020November 19, 2021

Jan Morris, Hav

Jan Morris is one of the most familiar names in British travel writing, so I was surprised to find a new work by her that I did not know, Last Letters from Hav. The New York Review Books Original edition - Hav - has a stupendous cover image that relates to the sequel, Hav of … Continue reading Jan Morris, Hav →

Kate 20thC, animals, architecture, art, baroque and dramatic, community life, dystopia, Jan Morris, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the life of the times, travelogue 1 Comment January 17, 2020

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Top Posts & Pages

  • Epic Poems You've Never Read 4: Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock
    Epic Poems You've Never Read 4: Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock
  • George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier
    George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier
  • William Golding, The Double Tongue
    William Golding, The Double Tongue
  • Coroner's Pidgin
    Coroner's Pidgin
  • The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
    The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
  • Magnificently diabolical sexual politics in Jane Austen's Lady Susan
    Magnificently diabolical sexual politics in Jane Austen's Lady Susan
  • Laurens Van der Post and A Story Like The Wind
    Laurens Van der Post and A Story Like The Wind
  • My books
    My books
  • E F Benson and Dodo’s Daughter
    E F Benson and Dodo’s Daughter
  • Penguin New Writing 37: The embrace of the weird
    Penguin New Writing 37: The embrace of the weird

this is what I write about

1920s 1930s 1950s 1960s aliens Angela Thirkell archaeology architecture Barbara Pym biography birds Cambridge detection Dornford Yates Dorothy Richardson drinking duds family life fantasy farming feminism fiction First World War France gender Germany Harry Potter H G Wells history Ireland Japan John Buchan John Lehmann journalism King Arthur literary history London magic memoir middlebrow murder music myth Naomi Mitchison nature newspapers Paris Penguin New Writing poetry politics post-war poverty publishing Rivers of London romance satire science science fiction Scotland Second World War servants small-town America space opera Sylvia Townsend Warner Terry Pratchett translation travel village life Vulpes Libris Wales wartime witchcraft witches women's history women's lives

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