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Review: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
There is something deeply comforting about an epic novel you can immerse yourself into such as this. This window into Henry VIII’s court has been meticulously studied and rings very true. The Boleyn girls are particularly well drawn. This is history dramatized respectably, with its subjects given depth, life and credible motivations. It may not […]
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Jane Eyre, as by Irvine Welsh, by Me
There wis no possibility ay taking a walk thit day. It were pissin wi rain thit further outdoor bummin aroond wis now oot ay the fuckin question. Ah wis glad ay it: Ah nivir liked long walks, especially in the fuckin cold: dreadful tae me wis the coming home in the raw twilight, wi frozen […]
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The Writers’ Madness
Terry Pratchett: My wife wrote a little letter to the doctor saying, ‘You have to understand that an author in the throws of writing a book, which in Terry’s case means permanently, is in the throws of some kind of madness. They will become vague, preoccupied, they will look through you into the distance, they […]
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On writing
From a mail I sent a while ago: You know, I know quite a few writers who can’t write. I don’t mean people who want to write, or people who’d like to be writers. I don’t mean those that just think they are, or are willing but unable. (That ten to the dozen.) I mean, […]
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A Dream Within a Dream
Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow- You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone? […]
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Philip Roth: The writer as a perennial apprentice
Philip Roth, regarded as America’s greatest living novelist, on writing: ‘You’re always lost at the beginning. You may be so lost you don’t even know what you’re going to write about. But even when you discover what you’re going to write about, you don’t know how you’re going to go about writing it. The sentences […]
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Review: Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire
I have just finished reading Gregory Maguire’s Mirror, Mirror, which is a retelling of the Snow White myth set around C15 Italy. Maguire interweaves the myth with historical fact which largely gives the story a fresh sense of realism not generally associated with fairytales. Indeed, Maguire paints such a vivid world that the mythical elements […]