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Kate Macdonald

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Tag: London

Judith Mackrell, Bloomsbury Ballerina

I lived outside the UK from 2001 to 2016, so I missed a lot of new books I would otherwise have gobbled up on their first publication. (There were good English bookshops where we lived, but I still missed things.) I only realised that this exceptional biography of Lydia Lopokova existed because I met a … Continue reading Judith Mackrell, Bloomsbury Ballerina →

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Kate 21stC, ballet, baroque and dramatic, biography, community life, history, Judith Mackrell, letters, literary history, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, theatreland, wartime 5 Comments February 17, 2022

Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels

I don't think I've ever read this Barbara Pym before, yet it's been sitting in my bookselves for at least nine years, because I know when I bought it. I call that irresponsible book-buying. It is a very good one, one of her 1950s London office worker novels with added anthropology. It's also about selfish … Continue reading Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels →

Kate 20thC, Barbara Pym, community life, humour, middlebrow, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, sociology, the life of the times, the world of work 2 Comments March 11, 2019March 8, 2019

Barbara Pym, An Unsuitable Attachment

An Unsuitable Attachment is Barbara Pym's seventh novel. She sent it to her usual publisher, Jonathan Cape, in February 1963, and to her embarrassment and distress they rejected it, and her, as being too behind the times, no longer likely to sell. Her confidant Philip Larkin was as annoyed as she was, but she wouldn't … Continue reading Barbara Pym, An Unsuitable Attachment →

Kate 20thC, Barbara Pym, community life, humour, middlebrow, middlebrow studies, oneupmanship, political / social commentary, sociology, terribly refined, the life of the times, the world of work 4 Comments March 4, 2019February 28, 2019

Claire Tomalin, A Life of My Own

This very good autobiography by one of our great biographers has a truly terrible photograph of herself on the cover. Claire Tomalin looks tired, as if she's not been looking after herself; she's irritated and preoccupied, but also patient. This is the face of a woman who had recently been widowed, with four children to … Continue reading Claire Tomalin, A Life of My Own →

Kate 21stC, autobiography, biography, Claire Tomalin, community life, family saga, literary history, memoirs / diaries, Michael Palin, Penelope Lively, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work 2 Comments February 26, 2019

Ben Aaronovitch, Lies Sleeping

Odd title, that. Who lies sleeping, exactly? It's the latest Peter Grant / Rivers of London novel, and I gobbled it up over three evenings. But though I enjoyed it, and it had (at the beginning) the potential to be one of the really rock-solid, hard-hitting novels in the series, like Broken Homes, for instance, … Continue reading Ben Aaronovitch, Lies Sleeping →

Kate 21stC, Ben Aaronovitch, comic strip caper, fantasy, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, time travel, vaguely horror 1 Comment November 26, 2018November 24, 2018

Arnold Bennett, Imperial Palace

Was this the original baggy monster of a novel? It's huge, and quite baggy, and has no place on my shelves now that I've read it, because its vastness is not matched by re-readability. However, some parts are very good indeed, so it's a patchy reading experience. I found myself skipping the rather tedious romance … Continue reading Arnold Bennett, Imperial Palace →

Kate 20thC, Arnold Bennett, community life, middlebrow studies, oneupmanship, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, terribly refined, the life of the times, the world of work 1 Comment June 13, 2018

Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows

I took a while to get into this sturdy family saga: it was blocking the reading pile for weeks while I struggled to pay it proper attention. Then something clicked, and the peculiarities of The Fountain Overflows (1956) began to attract my attention. At first I thought that it was rather like Rose Macaulay’s Told … Continue reading Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows →

Kate 20thC, baroque and dramatic, family saga, fantasy, feminism, humour, magical realism, middlebrow, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, Rachel Ferguson, Rebecca West, Rose Macaulay, sociology, the life of the times 3 Comments November 30, 2017November 30, 2017

Ben Aaronovitch’s The Furthest Station

We deep-dyed fans of the Peter Grant Rivers of London universe (the Metropolitan Police's 'weird shit' squad who deal with magic) have been waiting impatiently for the next book to come along. Aaronovitch has been writing the interpolated Rivers of London comic strip series for a year or two (I wrote about this here and … Continue reading Ben Aaronovitch’s The Furthest Station →

Kate 21stC, Ben Aaronovitch, detective, fantasy, passion and secrets, political / social commentary, the world of work, thriller 3 Comments October 25, 2017October 24, 2017

Edith Morley’s Before and After. Reminiscences of a Working Life

This is a memoir by the first female professor in the UK, Edith Morley, Professor of English Language at the University of Reading. It’s an essential read for anyone exploring the history of women’s higher education in Britain, and for those keen on reliving the struggles of women to make headway in a profession that … Continue reading Edith Morley’s Before and After. Reminiscences of a Working Life →

Kate 19thC, 20thC, Dorothy Richardson, Edith Morley, Edwardian, fashion history, feminism, history, literary history, memoirs / diaries, middlebrow studies, oneupmanship, political / social commentary, the life of the times, the world of work, wartime 1 Comment October 2, 2017September 30, 2017

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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    Bryher (the writer, not the island)
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