Penguin New Writing 27: Spring 1946

New Writing, John Lehmann’s influential British literary magazine, first appeared in 1936, and fostered politically Left writers and artists. It stopped publication in 1950, with issue 40, just as Tennessee Williams and John Wain (for example) joined the contributors. I found issues 27 to 40 in an Oxfam shop, and bought them for a fiver. … Continue reading Penguin New Writing 27: Spring 1946 →

Now posting on Vulpes Libris: Frank O’Connor’s autobiographies

I posted a double review of Frank O'Connor's autobiographies over on Vulpes Libris: An Only Child, and My Father's Son. I learned a lot about Irish history, Irish literature, Irish convents and army pensions.

Selective history in Geoffrey Trease’s The Crown of Violet

This week's Really Like This Book's podcast script catch-up is on Geoffrey Trease's The Crown of Violet (1952), which is set in Ancient Greece, in about 400 BC. Trease should not be confused with Henry Treece, the other English historical novelist of his period filed near him on the shelf. Trease wrote for what we now call … Continue reading Selective history in Geoffrey Trease’s The Crown of Violet →

Arnold Bennett builds a theatre: The Regent

A highly satisfying novel of wish fulfillment bounds onto your screen in this Really Like This Book podcast scripts catch-up. In Arnold Bennett’s The Regent (1913), a wealthy provincial magnate builds a London theatre by whose success he confounds the city folk who know better than he does. There are no agonies and no tense little scenes … Continue reading Arnold Bennett builds a theatre: The Regent →

1915 New York newspapers: P G Wodehouse’s Psmith Journalist

Some years ago I wrote a scholarly investigation on the role of menswear in P G Wodehouse’s fiction (read about it on this page). As part of the background reading I waded my way through all his Psmith novels. They’re not my favourite Wodehouse stories, but I do have a fond appreciation for his cautionary … Continue reading 1915 New York newspapers: P G Wodehouse’s Psmith Journalist →

Now posting on Vulpes Libris: The Life of Hilda Matheson, OBE

Over on Vulpes Libris I am wading through the 800 letters that Michael Carney used to construct his biography of Hilda Matheson. She was the BBC's first Director of Talks, and Vita Sackville West's lover (one of them) between 1929 and 1931. Her letters to Vita have ensured that her heroic struggles as a lesbian feminist … Continue reading Now posting on Vulpes Libris: The Life of Hilda Matheson, OBE →

The child of drunken arguments: Tracy Tynan’s Wear and Tear. The Threads of My Life

Some time ago I wrote about Elaine Dundy’s first novel, The Dud Avocado, which I loved. I thought the heroine rather flaky and too inclined towards drink and the wrong kind of man to be completely relatable, but I still loved it as a great comic novel. Because of this, I was sent her daughter's memoirs, which … Continue reading The child of drunken arguments: Tracy Tynan’s Wear and Tear. The Threads of My Life →

The roar of the greasepaint: Clemence Dane’s Broome Stages

Once again, Brad of The Neglected Books Page and I have a conversation about a big fat book neither of us had read before, by a seriously neglected woman author, Clemence Dane. Broome Stages (1931) is a long family saga of the London theatre, beginning in the very early 1800s, when the first Broome, a country boy … Continue reading The roar of the greasepaint: Clemence Dane’s Broome Stages →

Jennifer Morag Henderson, Josephine Tey: A Life

I’ve been waiting for a biography of Josephine Tey for years, and was so pleased when I saw that Sandstone Press were to publish this one. Henderson’s book gives a vast amount of new information (new to the casual but devoted Tey re-reader, but possibly not new to a proper detective fiction scholar), and depicts … Continue reading Jennifer Morag Henderson, Josephine Tey: A Life →

Dorothy Richardson’s Dawn’s Left Hand, and Clear Horizon

With nine volumes of Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage down, and four to go, Dawn’s Left Hand is the one in which Miriam has sex with H G Wells. It’s an extraordinary episode, and if you’ve read H G Wells’ Ann Veronica, you’ll be fuming, because the setting is exactly the same as the attempted rape of … Continue reading Dorothy Richardson’s Dawn’s Left Hand, and Clear Horizon →