I think I timed my visit to see the latest exhibition at The Lightbox in Woking rather well, as it coincided with Quentin Blake’s 83rd birthday today!
Quentin Blake Exhibition at The Lightbox
Tag Archives: literature
More Letters of Note Review
The Letters of Note family has expanded again!
I feel like an excitable gazelle clutching my copy of ‘More Letters of Note’: a beautiful book bursting with letters from favourite writers like Katherine Mansfield, Henry James and Sylvia Plath; a message from actor Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor; a curious note from Mozart to his wife Marianne… and that’s just for starters!
Summer Reads 2015
Need something enthralling to read on the beach / plane / park / stay-cation? Here are my favourite books for the Summer: gripping storylines filled with balmy sunshine that are suitably lightweight for July and August.
The Turn of the Screw
A Fin de Siècle novella. By Henry James. One of my favourite authors. And favoured book length (viva la novella!) The story starts round the fire with people exchanging various ghost stories.
Continue reading The Turn of the Screw
Lewis Carroll in Surrey
2015 marks the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll spent a lot of time living in Guildford and he finished the second Alice book Through the Looking Glass during one of these stays in 1871.
Continue reading Lewis Carroll in Surrey
Short Stories
Short stories are my absolute favourite form of literature (and writing – joint with poetry!). Utterly cluttered are the marginalia of every short story I consume/inhale. The gentle and explosive rhythm of the narrative; the way the plot unravels in the story; the twist potential; the preoccupation with time and the ability to give the impression of time expanding as the story is contracting; the heavy, heady significance of every carefully chosen word; the fact that you can be absorbed in several stories within an hour of reading…
‘Lists of Note’ Review
Marilyn Monroe was frequently very late to arrive when filming on set. So it may come as a surprise that she explicitly told herself, in her list of New Year’s Resolutions for the year 1956, that there are ‘No excuses for ever being late’. She was 29 years old at the time and had starred in many successful films (The Seven Year Itch for example) and she had just been accepted as a student at a renowned drama school in New York called the Actors’ Studio. Judging by her other resolutions (‘Work whenever possible’) she was clearly very driven and committed to try and continue her success as an actress.
The Paying Guests Book Review
Sarah Waters is a brilliant story teller. We’re in Camberwell in 1922 for her latest novel The Paying Guests. Our protagonist is Frances Wray, a spinster in her mid-twenties who lives with her mother in their large house. They have divided it up to rent out some of the rooms to a young married couple, Mr and Mrs Barber, to help pay for the running of the property. So far, so straightforward.
Will In The World Book Review
Charleston House
…in pictures
I went to the penultimate day of the Charleston Festival in Lewes, East Sussex, which was marking its 25th year. I heard Charlotte Higgins and Adam Nicolson read from their new non-fiction books on Classics. Charlotte Higgins’ ‘Under Another Sky’ was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.