Old English with Mandy and Paul of ClickityLit
What Does Þæt Mean?! Ure æghwylc sceal ende gebidanworolde lifes; wyrce se þe motedomes ær deaþe; þæt bið drihtgumanunlifgendum æfter selest. (Beowulf) Old English can seem intimidatingly foreign to the … Continue reading
Arnold Bennett’s Lord Raingo
Guest reviewer Colin Fisher gives us Arnold Bennett’s Lord Raingo. Arnold Bennett, the popular novelist and critic from the years before the First World War until his death in 1931, … Continue reading
Number 11 by Jonathan Coe
Anyone who has read Jonathan Coe knows that he has a knack for exposing the particular absurdity of a certain type of Brit, because we in the UK have all … Continue reading
Every Man His Own Poet
Has anyone nowadays heard of W H Mallock, author of Every Man His Own Poet? Unless you are researching why Walter Pater withdrew from the Oxford Professorship of Poetry competition in 1877, probably … Continue reading
The Romantics weren’t all boys
Imagine a conventional literary scene: men and women writing, arguing, publishing, in ‘creative dialogue’ with each other, as the textbooks have it, and selling well, or less well, or struggling. … Continue reading
Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead – a satire with too much weight?
A “nomenclature consultant” – an expert on naming the most disparate things, from antidepressants to cars, and spoons to plasters – is summoned by the city authorities of Winthrop to … Continue reading
When Grandmama Fell Off The Boat by Harry Graham
The Best of Harry Graham – Inventor of Ruthless Rhymes. In February of last year Vulpes Libris ran a feature recommending books for Mothering Sunday. My suggestion was Harry Graham’s … Continue reading
Ivan Vasil’evich meniaet professiiu/Ivan Vasil’evich Changes Profession
This week, there’s no need for my Good and Bad selves to duke it out. For once, I’m in complete agreement with myself, and what I want to tell you … Continue reading
Amélie Nothomb: Sulphuric Acid & The Life of Hunger
Amélie Nothomb’s Antichrista was one of the first books I blogged about, and since then I’ve been a devotee to Nothomb’s mixture of elegance, absurdity, and pungency. It’s funny, though, … Continue reading
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