Penguin New Writing 28: Summer 1946

The stories in this issue of John Lehmann's Penguin New Writing are pretty grim, but the photographs and artwork lighten the mood. In his introduction Lehmann talks about the 'young men and women who for six years had lived on dreams of devoting their time and energies to writing ... I would take a bet that most … Continue reading Penguin New Writing 28: Summer 1946 →

Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising

In the last of the Really Like This Book podcast script catch-ups about King Arthur, I’m reading a very old favourite, the series of fantasy novels by Susan Cooper called The Dark is Rising. There are five, and the earliest one - Over Sea Under Stone - is most definitely a children’s mystery quest. Simon, Jane … Continue reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising →

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Lantern-Bearers

This novel of King Arthur from the Really Like This Books podcast scripts catch-up is Rosemary Sutcliff's The Lantern-Bearers. It begins as one of her Romans in Britain novels, the books for which she is best known, a sequence that traces different periods of Roman rule in Britain, linked by the transmitted family heirloom of a glass … Continue reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Lantern-Bearers →

Hilda Vaughan’s The Soldier and the Gentlewoman

The Soldier and the Gentlewoman, originally published in 1932, puts a pitchfork in the romantic notion that soldiers returning from war would find a willing wife and a grateful village waiting for them. Hilda Vaughan writes a disturbing defence of the woman’s right to inherit the family estate, and disrupts the social niceties by showing what … Continue reading Hilda Vaughan’s The Soldier and the Gentlewoman →