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Novel Discoveries
Our novel course in 1974-5 took us from the early seventeenth century to the early nineteenth. Six substantial texts were prescribed, and a good many others recommended. Here’s our reading list from that year. I think I read most of the novels listed here. All of the key texts, of course, and quite a few…
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Home thoughts from abroad
I am currently in Italy, which is one reason why the reminiscences of undergraduate life in the seventies have been on hold. I’ll get back to that topic when I’m back in the UK, starting with a post on Ken Severs, about whom I wrote last year. I had a fascinating conversation with his son,…
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Communal Karaoke
First, dear reader, apologies for the prolonged silence, which has happened because of Reasons. I will be getting back to reminiscences of early seventies university life before too long, but in the meantime, a brief update, and a rant. I’ve posted a few more reviews on Shiny New Books, the most recent being of Charles…
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Marching on
It’s March already, and I haven’t posted since the end of last year. In the meantime, I’ve published a couple of reviews on Shiny New Books which I’ll link to here. The first was Cynthia Zarin’s little book of, well, essays I suppose one might call them, on aspects of Italy and Italian life. These…
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Utt(er)ly barmy
Authors routinely complain about boorish punters at book signings, but I don’t think any of them tried the Uttley solution. The formidable children’s author apparently didn’t like the prospect of dealing with real children: Dimly, she perceived an overwhelming mob running at her and with British pluck she unhesitatingly grabbed her duck-handled umbrella and waded…
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Muriel Spark, The Finishing School
This novel was sent to me by Penguin, so that I could add a review to their Blog a Holiday Read site, where, apparently, it will appear sometime. You, discerning reader, can read about it now though. Many things are coming to an end at the faux-bohemian College Sunrise: not just the education of a…
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A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena de Blasi
This is not the sort of book I would usually read, but since I was going to be in Tuscany for seven days, I thought it seemed an appropriate travelling companion. Evidently, it’s a sequel to her A Thousand Days in Venice, and there are other volumes on Umbria and Sicily- so you can see…
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Save the canon!
Sean O’Brien is one of my favourite poets. His work has always shown its rootedness in tradition, even when questioning that tradition – see Cousin Coat, for instance. Here, in an excellent article, he makes a case for the restoration of the canon in education, before something very precious is lost. He’s right.
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Oh for an editor
Over at Patternings, Ann Darnton points out how her reading of Chesil Beach was spoilt by Ian McEwan’s failure to get a contemporary detail right – he has his protagonist playing Beatles and Rolling Stones covers of Chuck Berry before they were recorded. On one level it’s a minor detail, but on another, as Ann…
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Writing for profit?
Recent analyses of what writers earn confirm pretty much what we all knew anyway, which is that, unless you are JK, or Salman, don’t give up the day job. That is, unless you can live on four grand a year.In that financial climate, the claims of the mail-order writing schools look a bit dubious. But…