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Kate Macdonald

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Category: political / social commentary

Kerri Andrews, Wanderers. A History of Women Walkers

Where Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust is a theoretical and philosophical discussion of women and walking, Wanderers is a set of case studies from three hundred years of (mostly) British women walking and writing about it. It leans on Wanderlust, but it's a robust book on its own, with depth and range to keep a reader happy … Continue reading Kerri Andrews, Wanderers. A History of Women Walkers →

Kate 18thC, 19thC, 20thC, 21stC, biography, community life, diary, feminism, history, Kerri Andrews, letters, literary history, memoirs / diaries, nature, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the life of the times, travelogue 5 Comments January 25, 2021January 25, 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 Leave a comment 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 4 Comments January 11, 2021January 10, 2021

Farah Mendlesohn, Creating Memory

Farah Mendlesohn has a new book out, and it is a dense deep dive into how the history of the English Civil Wars has been written for children, and therefore for everyone, and what this says about how our understanding of seventeenth-century history has been shaped by its teaching. Mendlesohn is a scholar in the … Continue reading Farah Mendlesohn, Creating Memory →

Kate 18thC, 19thC, 20thC, 21stC, community life, family saga, Farah Mendlesohn, historical romance, history, literary history, myth, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, teenage romance, the life of the times, wartime 4 Comments November 14, 2020November 14, 2020

Sarah Lonsdale, Rebel Women Between The Wars

I pre-ordered this book because I’ve been waiting for it for a very long time. Lonsdale has been researching women journalists and journalism in British fiction for much of her career as an academic at City University London, and before that was a journalist writing for a variety of papers and magazines. Rebel Women Between … Continue reading Sarah Lonsdale, Rebel Women Between The Wars →

Kate 20thC, baroque and dramatic, biography, community life, Edwardian, fashion history, feminism, getting published, history, letters, memoirs / diaries, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, Sarah Lonsdale, technology, the life of the times, the world of work, wartime 1 Comment November 7, 2020November 7, 2020

Philip Pullman, The Secret Commonwealth

I finally finished this immensely thick paperback last night, after six nights of reading. I’m not a slow reader, but the time I took to get through this novel - volume two in The Book of Dust trilogy - was down to its interminability. It is 719 pages long, and concludes nothing in itself, setting … Continue reading Philip Pullman, The Secret Commonwealth →

Kate 21stC, community life, dystopia, fantasy, myth, outdoor adventure, passion and secrets, Philip Pullman, political / social commentary, thriller, travelogue 5 Comments October 29, 2020

Rupert Hart-Davis, Hugh Walpole

This biography took forever to read. It's dense, in the leisured style of the 1950s (reissued unrevised in the 1980s), and it is very odd to read such a long study of a life that is pretty nearly forgotten now. None of Walpole's novels are in print now, as far as I can see, though … Continue reading Rupert Hart-Davis, Hugh Walpole →

Kate 20thC, biography, Edwardian, Hugh Walpole, literary history, memoirs / diaries, middlebrow studies, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work 8 Comments September 11, 2020September 11, 2020

Penelope Lively, A House Unlocked

Once again, I am delighted and impressed by Penelope Lively's effortless skill in winding me into her story. In this case, it really is her story. A House Unlocked is her ruminative ramble through British (and Russian) history, prompted by objects, plants and memories of her grandmother's house in rural Somerset, where Lively spent much … Continue reading Penelope Lively, A House Unlocked →

Kate 20thC, architecture, art, autobiography, biography, community life, family saga, fashion history, feminism, history, memoirs / diaries, nature, Penelope Lively, political / social commentary 2 Comments August 5, 2020

Rónán Hession, Leonard and Hungry Paul

Thirty-four pages into this excellent Irish novel, I was cackling with laughter for the third time. I was also being paused in my happy reading by moments of piercing empathy. They sat alongside the bursts of humour, deepening the reader’s feelings about the characters and their patient, ordinary lives. The cover shows us a sunfish, … Continue reading Rónán Hession, Leonard and Hungry Paul →

Kate 21stC, bildungsroman, community life, family saga, humour, political / social commentary, publishing, Rónán Hession, the life of the times 9 Comments July 4, 2020

Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne. The Life

I read the first volume of James Lees-Milne's edited diaries, Ancestral Voices, which cover the years 1942-43, and was both repelled by his spiky and judgemental personality, and intrigued by his account of social history and the Blitz experience. But the diaries were very edited, and JLM assumed that his readers would understand his allusions … Continue reading Michael Bloch, James Lees-Milne. The Life →

Kate 20thC, architecture, art, baroque and dramatic, biography, diary, fine art, history, James Lees-Milne, letters, memoirs / diaries, Michael Bloch, oneupmanship, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, publishing, terribly refined, the life of the times, the world of work 8 Comments May 19, 2020

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  • Kerri Andrews, Wanderers. A History of Women Walkers
  • I vent my spleen on duds
  • Letters to and from Sylvia Townsend Warner
  • 2020: The good books
  • Farah Mendlesohn, Creating Memory
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Top Posts & Pages

  • Epic Poems You've Never Read 3: John Milton's Paradise Lost
    Epic Poems You've Never Read 3: John Milton's Paradise Lost
  • Kerri Andrews, Wanderers. A History of Women Walkers
    Kerri Andrews, Wanderers. A History of Women Walkers
  • Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream
    Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream
  • Pratchett on bigotry
    Pratchett on bigotry
  • Re-reading Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising
    Re-reading Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising
  • Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside
    Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside
  • Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer
    Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer
  • Framework, unfinished: Terry Pratchett's The Shepherd’s Crown
    Framework, unfinished: Terry Pratchett's The Shepherd’s Crown
  • The shrine of Beverley Nichols: should one worship?
    The shrine of Beverley Nichols: should one worship?
  • Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer
    Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer

this is what I write about

1920s 1930s 1950s 1960s aliens Angela Thirkell archaeology architecture art Barbara Pym biography birds Cambridge detection Dornford Yates Dorothy Richardson drinking family life fantasy farming fashion fast cars feminism 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 Naomi Mitchison newspapers New York 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 women's history women's lives

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