It's been quite the month. I turned 31 at the weekend, quietly decrying the fact that I'm now officially 'in my 30s'. Birthdays as a continuously nomadic expat are always something of a double-edged sword. My non-stop wandering over the past decade has left behind me a wake of confusion, with family and friends generally … Continue reading The Monthly Reader: September 2019
"So they went into the basement, a long, white-washed room running the whole length of the house. A window at one end gave onto a coal hole; a little daylight filtered through at an angle from an iron grating in the pavement above. There was a clean, sweet smell of new wood and a tang … Continue reading Review: The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
It is unsurprising, given my own struggles, that I have always been intrigued by fictional representations of mental illness. As society-at-large attempts to redress some of the taboos surrounding psychological ailments, the publishing industry has been working overtime to fill the gaping chasm in accurate portrayals of mental illness. While there is still an incredible … Continue reading Why We Need More Mental Illness In Fiction
I track the history of my life less along the lines of conventional milestones - fleeting first crushes and those terrifying but gratifying signs of impending puberty - and more in my memories of favourite books. My fascination with the fantastical magnificence of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory marked one of my earliest forays into 'proper' books … Continue reading Monday Musing: For The Adults Who Read Children’s Fiction…
Now that we're past the halfway point for 2019, I've been spending some time thinking about the objectives that I set out in January for a successful year of reading. I'm not typically someone who focuses much on quantity when it comes to the books that I consume. Instead, my goals are usually oriented toward … Continue reading Monday Musing: How Many Books Are Too Many? A Reflection On Reading Goals
"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that great age would calm my fever and now that … Continue reading Review: Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
I am no stranger to homesickness. I've spent close to half my life moving town and country with a regularity that's truly baffling when you consider how little I enjoy change. Until I turned 16, I had always lived in the same town - Basingstoke: the butt of many jokes about England's quietly unattractive (and … Continue reading Bibliotherapy For Homesickness: Fiction Recommendations For Tough Times
"Just as the painter Rubens amused himself with being the ambassador to the court of St. James's - a sufficient career in itself for most busy men - so Mrs. Lucas amused herself, in the intervals of her pursuit of art for art's sake, with being not only an ambassador but a monarch. Riseholme might … Continue reading Review: Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
The question of what makes a classic a classic is one that has occupied literary theorists and literature lovers for centuries. From Homer's The Iliad to the entire back-catalogue of Charles Dickens, none of us will escape encounters with the 'classics' of literary canon and the weighty prestige that this label carries. I am a self-proclaimed lover … Continue reading What Makes A Classic A Classic?
In Elif Shafak's excellent TED talk on the ways in which fiction can combat the restrictions of culturally-boundaried identity, the author discusses her own history of literary controversy and its intersection with political censorship. Shafak - a Turkish author, whose most recent work deals with the story of a murdered sex worker - is no … Continue reading Monday Musing: Literary Censorship And Political Control
