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Kate Macdonald

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Category: essays

Read With Pleasure

I did enjoy reading these, but I haven’t got a whole blogpost’s worth to say about each of them. Please accept these brief paras in the spirit of strong recommendation. Una McCormack, The Greatest Story Ever Told I bought this from NewCon Press, one of a trilogy of themed novels about a populated Mars, with … Continue reading Read With Pleasure →

Kate 20thC, 21stC, Colm Tóibín, community life, Edwardian, essays, Harold Nicolson, historical romance, humour, Lawrence Durrell, letters, literary history, nature, passion and secrets, Patrick Campbell, political / social commentary, R A Dick, science fiction, sea stories, the life of the times, Thomas Hardy, travelogue, Una McCormack, wartime 4 Comments February 4, 2022

The Hot Gates, by William Golding

This is a collection of twenty essays, reviews and magazine columns written by the British novelist and Nobel laureate William Golding, from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. It's a time capsule, packed with riches, and one stand-out comic essay on the body-soul dislocation experienced when flying across the USA. (Bourbon is involved.) Much … Continue reading The Hot Gates, by William Golding →

Kate 20thC, archaeology, bildungsroman, book prizes, drinking, essays, fantasy, literary history, memoirs / diaries, nature, outdoor adventure, political / social commentary, science, sociology, the life of the times, the world of work, William Golding Leave a comment January 3, 2022

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

Hong Kong: stories from within

This is not a book review, but a distribution post. A Hong Kong friend has been collecting publicly available blog posts, articles and Tweet threads written by people who have been caught up in the protests in Hong Kong this year. We've presented them here to help spread the word more widely in the anglophone … Continue reading Hong Kong: stories from within →

Kate 21stC, community life, essays, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, translation 3 Comments October 14, 2019October 14, 2019

Kathleen Jamie, Surfacing

Kathleen Jamie is a poet, but it's a curious thing: she never speaks about her poetry in her essays. I've read and reread her earlier collections Findings and Sightlines, and I've drenched myself in her new essays in Surfacing now a couple of times, but it's only just occurred to me that if you only come to Jamie … Continue reading Kathleen Jamie, Surfacing →

Kate 21stC, animals, archaeology, community life, essays, history, Kathleen Jamie, memoirs / diaries, nature, outdoor adventure, political / social commentary, sea stories, the world of work, travelogue 3 Comments September 16, 2019

Colette, My Mother’s House

I love Colette's writing, though I've not yet managed to read her most scandalous novels about Claudine. Nor have I yet seen the Keira Knightley biopic; undoubtedly I'll get around to them. My Colette collection consists of her two Chéri novels, Julie de Carneilhan, Chance Acquaintances, The Other Woman, The Vagabond, Gigi and The Cat: all short works … Continue reading Colette, My Mother’s House →

Kate 19thC, 20thC, animals, architecture, autobiography, biography, Colette, community life, essays, family saga, fashion history, history, humour, literary history, memoirs / diaries, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, short stories, the life of the times 6 Comments July 6, 2019

My gifts to the Oxfam bookshop

The Mere Wife, by Maria Dahvana Headley I didn’t finish this. I got to the bit where the character in the Hrothgar role got killed, and the character in the Beowulf role is in a car with the character in the Wealtheow role, considering kissing her. I did not want to read on because the … Continue reading My gifts to the Oxfam bookshop →

Kate 21stC, biography, essays, fantasy, Helen Cullen, Lauren Elkin, letters, Maria Dahvana Headley, memoirs / diaries, Molly Keane, political / social commentary, Sally Phipps, the Beowulf poet, the life of the times, the world of work, travelogue 6 Comments January 9, 2019

The Countryside Companion

I found this pleasingly hefty but slim volume in The Beaufort Bookshop in Bath, two days after we'd moved (always check out your new city's second-hand bookshops). I do like old editions of nature books, and have a particular keenness for the post-Second World War period, when rationing could be bypassed by going to the … Continue reading The Countryside Companion →

Kate 20thC, animals, architecture, community life, essays, fashion history, history, nature, outdoor adventure, photography, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, Tom Stephenson 1 Comment May 5, 2018

Ben Judah’s This is London

This book has been looking at me for months, sitting on the shelf in an accusing position, in the stack received during and since Christmas and somehow not yet read, because I knew full well it would not be a nice read, not be comforting, not be bedtime reading, not be reading I could prop … Continue reading Ben Judah’s This is London →

Kate 21stC, Ben Judah, bildungsroman, community life, drinking, essays, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, vaguely horror 1 Comment September 13, 2017September 12, 2017

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Top Posts & Pages

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    The trouble with Penelope Lively: Oleander, Jacaranda
  • The performances of Roderick Alleyn: Ngaio Marsh at her best
    The performances of Roderick Alleyn: Ngaio Marsh at her best

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 fast cars feminism fiction First World War France gender Germany Harry Potter H G Wells history Ireland 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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