Literary Greenwich

Greenwich and its Royal park have, for centuries, been known for their historical setting: Greenwich park is thought to have been the site of early Bronze Age barrows and 6th century Saxon burial grounds. Greenwich Palace saw the reign of Henry VII and the birth of Henry VIII and his marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, as well as the birth of their daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Charles II founded and built the Royal Observatory. The London Marathon starts in Greenwich Park and as the 2012 Olympics bring the equestrian events to the park, it is once again about to take its place in history.

Given the theme of this blog, though, I thought I'd take the opportunity to look at its literary history.

Charles Dickens was a frequent vistor to Greenwich and is believed to have been to The Trafalgar Tavern, which subsequently features as the setting for a breakfast scene in his novel, Our Mutual Friend. Greenwich also features in David Copperfield and Pickwick Papers.

William Shakespeare's play Henry VI (Act IV Scenes II & III) are set in Blackheath, which sits at the top of Greenwich Park. Blackheath itself saw a lot of history including the Peasant's Revolt in 1381.

Graham Swift's novel, Waterland, sets some of its scenes in Greenwich and around the Royal Observatory.

Geoffrey Chaucer, it is thought, lived out his last years in Greenwich. In The Canterbury Tales, though, he refers to Greenwich as "an Inne of Shrews", which is thought to be because Chaucer was a victim of a mugging there, twice in the same day!

Cutty Sark back to its former glory

Greenwich has no shortage of bookshops either. Aside from a large Waterstones just a stone's throw from the Cutty Sark, Halcyon Books on Greenwich South Street is a great place to wander about, with maps, Vintage magazines, old books, new books, rare books...

You may have also seen Greenwich feature in many different literary adapatations. The 2009 film of Sherlock Holmes was filmed in Greenwich, as were the adaptations of Sense and Sensability, Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason, Gulliver's Travels, Charlotte Gray, The King's Speech, as well as scenes from the next James Bond film, Skyfall.

The London Bookbarge

Last weekend I went for a lovely evening's walk along Regents Canal. Aside from soaking up the glorious sunshine and eating my weight in delicious Turkish food, I stepped on board The London Bookbarge. Situated that evening on the part of the canal just east of Broadway Market, the barge looked extremely happy with itself. There's books of every kind in there - classics, modern treats, quirky non-fiction and weighty biographies are just some of the genres on offer.

Stuffed full with a ridiculous number of books sold by friendly faces, I don't feel I need say more.

To find the barge yourself, follow @wordonthewater to find out where they will be moored next!

Voss

Blurb: Set in nineteenth-century Australia, Voss is the story of the secret passion between an explorer and a naïve young woman. Although they have met only a few times, Voss and Laura are joined by overwhelming, obsessive feelings for each other. Voss sets out to cross the continent. As hardships, mutiny and betrayal whittle away his power to endure and to lead, his attachment to Laura gradually increases. Laura, waiting in Sydney, moves through the months of separation as if they were a dream and Voss the only reality.

From the careful delineation of Victorian society to the sensitive rendering of hidden love to the stark narrative of adventure in the Australian desert, Patrick White's novel is a work of extraordinary power and virtuosity.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Patrick White and so I thought it fitting that I review one of his books. I read Voss as part of my university course in Australian and New Zealand fiction. It wasn't a book I expected to like and I wouldn't say it's going to go down as one of my favourite books of all time but I was pleasantly surprised by it.

It's beautifully written and is, essentially, a romance. You can't help but be impressed by a writer that manages to keep you rooting for a couple that barely meet! The two meet shortly before Voss heads out across the middle of Australia to discover what goes on in the middle of the vast country, hoping that a large water source might make itself apparent. The book is based on explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt, and as you might expect does not descripe an easy expedition.
For what I assumed would be extremely dull (I mean how can a writer spin out over 400 pages on Australian desert?) Voss is certainly scary and leaves you feeling slightly unnerved. The book is dotted with awkward archaisms, particularly in reference to Australia's indigenous people, that leave you feeling slightly embarrassed but White is, of course, not alone in that. It was written in 1957 about the 19th century, so it would be odd not to see some outdated views and phrases in there.

All in all, it's a good book. A little long, in my view, but scary and completely different to anything I've ever read before.
6.5/10

Gardens in Literature

I don't know about everywhere else but London is currently basking in glorious sunshine and it's set to continue over the weekend. Inspired by my lunchtimes in Grays Inn Gardens, I thought a summery post on literary gardens might be the right way forward. Admittedly this list could be horrifically long and I will probably spend my weekend being frustrated that I didn't include this garden or that garden... but I'm just going to pick three.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.

Now critics will have drilled this book with Freudian accusations. Regardless of whether you agree or not, this story is one of the most beautiful. There is something incredibly satisfying about walled gardens... in Greenwich Park there is an enclosed garden, sometimes used for outside performances in the summer, and to me it has always been my secret garden... although it turns out it's not that secret... The wildlife in this book brings everything to life, the garden and the writing, to the extent that one of my favourite characters is the robin:

The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off - and they are nearly always doing it.

The Go-Between by L P Hartley

...sat on the lawn, its dark foliage and the brightness of the turf around its shadow; and I also remember the hammock of crimson canvas slung on two poles beneath it.

Rather than a garden, Brandham Hall has impressive grounds and in one of the hottest summers they play hosts to cricket match after cricket match, Leo catching 'glimpses of white-clad figures striding purposefully to and fro', and forming a backdrop to the story. Although the novel, as with any other, is not plain-sailing, you can't help but wish you were spending your summer holidays lolling about on the lawn, eating cucumber sandwiches and acting completely oblivious to all the tumultous goings on beneath the surface.

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden. It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. "How happy we are here!" they cried to each other.

When I was a child, my mum used to read from Oscar Wilde's fairy tales - probably not the most appropriate stories as they are, often, desperately sad. I remember my mum saying how sad they were and I never fully understood at that age but, going back, I can see it all now. It's beautifully written and if it doesn't make you well-up you're made of rocks and stuff...

The Great Gatsby and other exciting new trailers

Super excited for Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo Di Caprio in the starring role, who is supported by a fantastic cast of Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Isla Fisher.

For information on other adaptations of The Great Gatsby, click here:

Other trailers I'm getting excited about:

On the Road - starring Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Amy Adams

The Hobbit - starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Luke Evans, Andy Serkis, Orlando Bloom and Richard Armitage

Cosmopolis - starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Jay Baruchel, Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - starring Nina Dobrev, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller

Other adaptations we should be looking out for:

Great Expectations - starring Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Feinnes, Jeremy Irvine, Robbie Coltrane and Sally Hawkins


Cloud Atlas - starring Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarrandon, Jim Broadbent and Ben Whishaw


Life of Pi - starring Tobey Maguire, Gerard Depardieu, Irrfan and Suraj Sharma (Dir. Ang Lee)


Anna Karenina - starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Kelly MacDonald, Aaron Johnson, Matthew MacFadyen, Ruth Wilson and Emily Watson

Book vs. Film: The Hours

Blurb: Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer and Pen/Faulkner prizes, The Hours is a daring and deeply affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf. A passionate, profound and haunting story of love and inheritance, hope and despair.

Exiled in Richmond in the 1920s, taken from her beloved Bloomsbury and lovingly watched over by her husband Leonard, Virginia Woolf struggles to tame her rebellious mind and make a start on her new novel. In the brooding heat of 1940s Los Angeles, a young wife and mother yearns to escape the claustrophobia of suburban domesticity and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And in New York in the 1990s, Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich Village apartment and goes shopping for flowers for the party she is giving in honour of her life-long friend Richard, an award-winning poet whose mind and body are being ravaged by AIDS.

The Hours was one of those instances where you see the film and then find out there was a book and feel a bit embarrassed about not knowing. I finally read the book at university as I chose it, and the film, as the subject of an essay I was doing on whether a book or film about a writer can be considered an adaptation. You'll be relieved to hear that I'm not about to regurgitate the brilliance that was my essay muahaha... but I decided that as I came to the film first, it made sense to do my review on the film at the same time as the book.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham is not a difficult read but that doesn't mean it lacks substance. People often say that it's suicidal to write a book that jumps between time periods and different characters but if it's done well, I personally often really enjoy the effect. There's something satisfying about seeing different time periods intertwine, especially as 'the past' is something generally considered intangible.

Cunningham picked Virginia Woolf as a focus for his book but how does he bring her to life when all his readers are living in a completely different world? The answer is, as you would expect, manifold but the fundamental device I felt was his relating her to situations, modern or otherwise, that are familiar. For instance: relationships:- parent, child, friends, sisters, partners. emotions:- love, embarrassment, joy, loss, desperation. situations:- birthdays, dinners, celebrations, home life.

All the characters are beautifully crafted. You completely believe and fall for Leonard Woolf, for instance. With the main three characters, however, Cunningham cleverly creates ambivalence about how you feel about them. They're not perfect, which is what makes them so real, and so you spend a lot of time jumping between frustration and empathy. It's a great book and will take you no time to read so worth doing!

As I watched it before I read it, I was bound to enjoy the film more so the ratings I've given are a result of that!

7.5/10

~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~

The film, as a completely different medium, obviously cannot use the subtlety of writing to convey these things, as Cunningham does so well. Everything is far more explicit in film but you couldn't find three more brilliant actresses to bring this book to life without making it a crude adaptation (of the book or of Virginia Woolf herself). It's not hard to see why Nicole Kidman got herself an Oscar for her portrayal of Woolf.

As with so many films, there are slight changes made from the original text but you would hardly notice. There is always that factor that you don't get in books where you see Meryl Streep come on screen and you go 'Hi Meryl' (or is that just me...?). Nicole Kidman's fake nose, though, however bizarre a concept, saves her from that problem, regardless of acting ability, and the result is that you really feel you're watching Virginia Woolf.

Aside from the story itself, what I love about the film is its whole feel. Philip Glass provides a beautiful score, the lighting is soft, the acting is spot on and the whole movie feels very intimate. The actors, of course, help this and even a young Claire Danes manages to bring something within her minimal screen time.

This is one of my all-time favourite films. It's not a cheery one... so maybe not one for a sunny afternoon... but it's soooo worth watching. 

9/10

Related posts:
Introducing... Virginia Woolf
Monk's House

Book Club: The Hare With Amber Eyes

Blurb: 264 Japanese wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great-uncle Iggie's Tokyo appartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a far more dramatic story than he could ever have imagined.

From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to post-war Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.

Boy, I've been waiting weeks to do a review of this but, as it's a book club book, I always want to wait to hear what everyone else thought - otherwise what would be the point?? 

In short, absolutely loved this book. Almost everyone liked it by the end but agreed that it took some getting into. For me I can give a book about 50 pages but any longer than that and the book is ruined for me, even if it picks up later on. This was a case of getting past the first chapter, I'd say. Some of my friends felt it took a bit longer than that... one saying 200 pages... and one not getting into it full stop. I can totally see why that happened, but for me it was a different story.

At first, all I knew about The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal was that it was a family memoir written by some potter... it didn't jump off the shelf to me, I admit. Luckily, though, it was much more than that. It is a family memoir, yes, but it's also a moving social history that takes you all over the world: Austria, France, England, America, Japan and Ukraine.

The world has a rich modern history but it's rare that we read so much of it together in one place. This book jumps between some of my favourite topics, including impressionist art in Paris, schmoozing with novelists like Proust and artists such as Degas and Renoir, to the tumultuous events of World War 2 and the treatment of Austrian Jewish communities.

De Waal really gets personal with his ancestors so that you feel you are just starting to fill in the gaps between the history books and the horrible, personal reality. The netsuke form the main thread of the story but they are not dull, as you might think. They are an important link that makes you keep reading otherwise you might think the book isn't going anywhere. How else would you determine what and who to write about when you have so much to choose from?

This book made me want to read more non-fiction, and that is rare. It also made me cry, another thing that is rare with books! It's a definite must and has a great twist that will make you smile and well-up at the same time!

Book club gave it 7/10.

It's a 9/10 from me.

Hilary Mantel at the Southbank Centre

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn deer hunting in Windsor Forest. Painted by William Powell Frith

Last night I fulfilled my book geek duties by sacrificing my Friday evening to go and watch Hilary Mantel talk about her new book, Bring Up the Bodies, with my mum. I say sacrifice... I was begging Mum to come with me... I've seen Hilary Mantel only once in the flesh beforehand but have never heard her talk. I don't know about anyone else but for me I'm always waiting to hear how someone speaks because it's so rarely how you expect. The amount of times you see really tiny figures come out with huge, deep voices... it's hysterical!

Anyway, the best thing about last night was Mantel's enthusiasm and passion. You really felt that you were there, with Henry, with Cromwell, because she brought them so much to life. She talked about how before she begins to write historical fiction, the history is just a pile of random phrases from ghostly figures of the past. Her job is to put them into some form of context and bring those words alive and make the believable. I really do believe she does that but it's fair to say, and people did say last night (comfortingly!) that her books can be quite a challenge - especially Wolf Hall.

 
Her amount of knowledge is brilliant. Last night it came out with such speed and enthusiasm from her mouth that sometimes if you blinked or noticed someone's bald patch in the seat in front, that you found yourself quite lost. The Tudors, for me, as I said in my review last week, are one of my ultimate favourite periods in history and Anne Boleyn one of my favourite 'characters'. I had never quite realised the fear that Henry's court and the country felt at the thought of Anne having any form of power. It's not quite certain what threat she specifically posed to the country and its wellbeing but she was thought to be a manipulative, cunning woman and Henry was fickle and often easily swayed by, as Mantel said herself, whoever the last person he saw.

History is something that is regurgitated back to us so often, whether it by school, family or those annoying people who just seem to know everything. What's great about historical fiction is that it adds humanity to it and can always offer different viewpoints. Mantel picks Thomas Cromwell - what a great character, but your feelings to him are always ambivalent. Mantel kept talking about how some of these figures in her books are ambivalent because on the one hand you are horrified by the goings on in Henry's court and by him and his admirers. On the other hand, once you know a character so personally, you can't help but also root for them. Cromwell and the King are both cases of that kind of ambivalence, I feel anyway.

Anyway, great evening and always enjoyable to watch someone talk passionately on a subject, whether it interesting or not. Shame about the idiots behind me who talked the whole way through...

For my review of Bring up the Bodies, click here.

Cookbooks

My family has always been quite food-orientated... my Dad's a keen cook, my Mum grew up in Malaysia and so has loads of great Far-Eastern recipes and me and my sister seem to have got the cooking bug too. Anyway, I thought I would step away from traditional books for today's post and talk about some of my favourite recipes from some of the best cookery books out there.

Salad: For the best side salad, you've got to look at French chef, Daniel Galmiche's The French Brasserie Cookbook. He does a scrummy garden salad with tomatoes, onions and little bits of raw garlic. He's obviously not the only cook to have ever added raw garlic to a salad, but it does give it a real kick and the dressing is simple and tasty.

Thai: Vatch's Thai Cookbook is great - real Thai cooking with some fantastic flavours. My favourite is probably his grilled chicken with a delicious sauce made from white wine vinegar, coriander and chilli. You heat it up with sugar so that it becomes almost a syrup. Delicious! Controversially, I'm quite a fan of Jamie Oliver's red Thai curry in 30 Minute Meals. You have complete control over the spice, so it's a good one to do for guests who don't like too much of it.

Pasta: As a kid I was brought up on Pasta Putanesca. This recipe is inescapable as I'm pretty sure every chef under the sun has their own version. My Dad always used to use Delia Smith's from Delia's Winter Collection but he has always added tuna. The basic recipe is delicious and, again, can be as spicy as you like but I do recommend the tuna addition. I don't even like tuna all that much... but it gives it a great consistency and taste.

Pudding: I do like puddings... and I can't say I have a favourite. Any form of sticky toffee pudding (Nigella's is particularly delicious and super easy) and almost all fruit crumbles will see a big smile across my face. Daniel Galmiche, as previously mentioned, has a lovely recipe for Tarte Tatin in his book and the banana cake in Pret A Manger's cookbook always comes out perfectly and goes down very well...

Vegetarian: My sister is a vegetarian so we eat a lot of meat-free dishes in our house. My personal favourite veggie dishes include Ottolenghi's Mee Goreng and loads of recipes from The Accidental Vegetarian, which is really worth a look.

If you simply have ingredients but don't know what to do with them... google the BBC Good Food website and type in your ingredients... it's  brilliant. Some of my all-time favourites come from their phenomenal database of recipes... shouldn't be snubbed.

I'm sure I've missed some great recipes and cookbooks that I'll hit myself about later but hope you like my little selection here. To have a read about food in literature, have a look at my post from a couple of months ago: FOOD IN LITERATURE...

Bring Up The Bodies

‘My boy Thomas, give him a dirty look and he’ll gouge your eye out. Trip him, and he’ll cut off your leg,’ says Walter Cromwell in the year 1500. ‘But if you don’t cut across him he’s a very gentleman. And he’ll stand anyone a drink.’

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church. But Henry’s actions have forced England into dangerous isolation, and Anne has failed to do what she promised: bear a son to secure the Tudor line. When Henry visits Wolf Hall, Cromwell watches as Henry falls in love with the silent, plain Jane Seymour. The minister sees what is at stake: not just the king’s pleasure, but the safety of the nation. As he eases a way through the sexual politics of the court, its miasma of gossip, he must negotiate a ‘truth’ that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge undamaged from the bloody theatre of Anne’s final days.

I was lucky enough to get hold of an advance copy of Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, which is the highly anticipated sequel to the Man Booker Prize winning novel, Wolf Hall. The Tudors were my favourite subject in history at school and so I was always going to enjoy these books but Anne Boleyn was always particularly interesting to me. Even without the sexified The Tudors series, it's pretty well agreed that Anne Boleyn caused a few problems for the royal family and was a bit of a flirt to say the least...

Bring Up the Bodies is about the downfall of Anne Boleyn and the arrival of Jane Seymour. The focus is, again, Thomas Cromwell - a fascinating figure: a master manipulator, political genius and smooth talker, Cromwell isn't someone you'd want to cross. He's a sad character, though, and you find yourself jumping from one opinion to another in his case because you feel sorry for him, you admire him and yet you are often almost scared by him.

For a story that is so well-known, Mantel brings a freshness and intelligence to it that makes the whole thing feel brand new. I always feel that Henry VIII was so unbelievable, so extreme, that he would make a fantastic book character and here Mantel proves it. You feel all the emotions you're supposed to - real excitement, fear, horror and sadness. There's emotion in Mantel's books that you don't get in the same way from the factual accounts. These are people, not just historical figures.

I'm a big fan of Hilary Mantel and her historical novels in particular are brilliant. A Place of Greater Safety about the French Revolution, was fantastic and this is no exception. If you are reading this thinking Wolf Hall was just a bit too difficult to get through, don't worry. This sequel is, in my opinion, much easier to read.

Whether you enjoy history or not, this is a brilliant read from a very talented writer.

8.5/10

Two Acts of Kindess

I first came across Terence Rattigan at school. For A-Level English we studied post-1945 drama and the Winslow Boy came up as a practice paper. Reading the dialogue like a novel is never going to do a play justice and I found it, I hate to say, all a little dull... but a 17 year-old can be forgiven for being wrong... right?

As part of the centenary celebrations last year, a new play was commissioned to be performed alongside Rattigan's The Browning Version at Chichester Theatre. David Hare, himself a modern dramatic genius, subsequently wrote South Downs, inspired by Hare's own experiences at Lancing College in the early 60s. After rave reviews, it was not surprising that the double bill moved to the West End in 2012.

First up was South Downs, which follows Blakemore, a teenager boarding at an Anglo-Catholic school in 1962. He is remarkably bright, much to the annoyance of his peers, and finds himself struggling socially. It's a really touching play that culminates in an 'act of kindness' that leaves you feeling all mushy inside!

When my Mum and I talked in the interval, we embarrassingly realised that neither of us knew what play we had just seen and which one was yet to come! When we found out that Rattigan was still to come we let out a little squeal; if South Downs had been great then The Browning Version was only going to be brilliant.

I have to say my throat felt very dry by the end of The Browning Version. Andrew Crocker-Harris is a strict and much disliked Classics teacher at an English public boarding school, thought to be inspired by Rattigan's own time at Harrow, but has been forced to give up his long-standing career due to health problems. Crocker-Harris spends much of the first scene off-stage so all you hear what a prat he is. When he appears, however, you slowly come to realise things run a little deeper than that. It's a deeply touching performance from Farrell that reminded me of one of my own teachers.

Anna Chancellor and Nicholas Farrell were pure genius and the young boy who played Blakemore was startlingly good. What I also loved was the accompanying music. No, it wasn't a musical... it's not a load of public schooled boys dancing in unison to catchy tunes in sequined costumes... The piano used between scenes was just a great addition and really helped with the mood.

Anyway, this is a ridiculously long post - I apologise! But go see it - it's one of the best things I've ever seen on stage.

Introducing...Maurice Sendak

“And now,” cried Max, “Let the wild rumpus start!”

On Monday it was announced that children's author, Maurice Sendak, had sadly died from complications of a stroke. The New York Times named him "the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century" and it's not hard to see why.

Sendak was born in 1928 in Brooklyn, New York to Polish Jewish immigrant parents. Sendak said that the Holocaust in Europe when he was just a child was very difficult as much of his extended family were killed. Once you have read his children's books, the fact that he was affected so early on by something so awful does come as much of a surprise, you might think. His books were brilliant and have been read across the world for decades but there's definitely a darkness to them that you don't always expect from children's books.

His most famous book that brought him international fame was Where The Wild Things Are. That's not to say there weren't concerns to start with. Many parents thought the monsters illustrated in the book were too scary.


That said, the book went on to have almost cult success when it was released in 1963. Although Sendak did illustrate and write other stories, it was another seven years before he saw again the kind of success that Wild Things generated. The Night Kitchen was one of my favourite books as a child and did very well internationally but, once again, some parents had some concerns. This time with the young boy at the centre of the story being depicted naked.

What is brilliant about Sendak's stories is their originality. You won't find a story even close to The Night Kitchen or Where the Wild Things Are and they can be enjoyed by both adults and children:

Where the Wild Things Are (1963) - One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another, so his mother calls him 'Wild Thing' and sends him to bed without his supper. That night a forest begins to grow in Max's room and an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are... I won't tell you any more in case you haven't read it but it's a lovely book. Terrifying and touching.

The Night Kitchen (1970) - Mickey falls through the dark into the Night Kitchen where three fat bakers are making the morning cake. So begins an intoxicating dream fantasy, described by the artist himself as 'a fantasy ten feet deep in reality'.

Now get reading!

Monk's House

Monk's House is an 18th Century weatherboarded cottage, nestled down a beautiful country road in Rodmell, Sussex, England. It's beautiful setting and never-ending gardens attracted Leonard and Virginia Woolf in 1919 and it became their country retreat.

The Woolfs made several additions to the building during their time there, including improvements to the kitchen, the installation of a hot water range and bathroom with water closet and an ambitious two-storey extension in 1929. This extension importantly included Virginia Woolf's 'room of one's own' where she is thought to have written many of her most famous books.

The house itself is lovely. Very petite and you have to bend your head a lot to miss the beams when you're changing rooms but it really feels like a home and the current tenant and the National Trust has done a lovely job in keeping it so homely and cozy. I particularly enjoyed looking at the couple's bookshelves. I don't know about you but for some reason I always forget that writers read as well as write... I work for a literary agency and yet that one still catches me out.. oh dear.

Being the home of the Woolfs, Monk's house was a literary hub with frequent visitors from members of the Bloomsbury Group, including T S Eliot and E M Forster.

Although the couple had a home in London, they visited Rodmell often and when their London flat was damaged in a bombing raid in 1940, the pair moved in full-time. It was also thought that the calm and quiet of the village community offered Virginia some form of relief from the stress and chaos of wartime London, which understandably took its toll on an already fragile woman.

Sadly, it was from Monk's House that Virginia made her famous walk to the river Ouse where she drowned herself in 1941.

Leonard continued to live in the house and was a well-known and respected member of the village community until his death in 1969.


Since it became a National Trust property, you can have a look round yourself. The gardens are spectacular and includes an impressive vegetable garden and garden hut where Virginia Woolf was thought to have spent a lot of time writing.

For a bit more on Virginia Woolf, see my previous post: Introducing... Virginia Woolf

How To Be A Woman

Blurb: 1913: Suffragette throws herself under the King's horse.

1970: Feminists storm Miss World.

Now: Caitlin Moran rewrites The Female Eunuch from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller.

There's never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain...

Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should you get Botox? Do men secretly hate us? What should you call your vagina? Why does your bra hurt? And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby?

Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers these questions and more in How To Be A Woman - following her from her terrible 13th birthday ('I am 13 stone, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me') through adolescence, the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, Topshop, motherhood and beyond.

I was given this book as a gift last year and took it with me on a train shortly afterwards (wow that was a supremely exciting opening sentence...). Read it last year but felt it was time for a new book review, so there. Loved every minute of Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman. She's not afraid to use the word 'feminist', a phrase that's unnecessarily become such a dirty word in modern vocab, and she brings it back to what being a feminist is all about. There's no chapters on bra burning or poking pins in effigies of men - being a feminist is just about wanting women to be treated equally and I'm pretty sure a lot of men want that too... feminism isn't just for girls!

For anyone who hasn't read Caitlin Moran's column in the Times, here's an insight into her mind and style. Follow her on twitter if you're not already doing so, because she's hilarious. Reading her tweets about X Factor is honestly more fun than the program itself... Anyway, the book. It's really very funny and has plenty of those satisfying 'oh me too!' moments that make you feel all glowy and gooey while belting out regular cackles into a packed rush-hour train carriage... thank god it wasn't the quiet carriage. Plenty of cringe material where you find yourself holding your book up close to your face so that no one can read it... (not even yourself it turns out... funny that...).

It is funny but it's also really very touching. Caitlin Moran has this wonderful way of making you feel included. Through her writing, she lets you in and somehow you feel that she'd understand all your problems. She tackles some really very serious issues and doesn't laugh them away as you might expect and yet, she doesn't depress you and make you feel terrible. She's a positive voice and you could do worse than spend 4 hours on a train reading what she has to say.

Pick it up! 8.5/10

The Avengers on Screen

Strictly speaking, this is not a 'book' post so to speak. However, I'm going to justify it anyway. The Avengers are, first and foremost, comic BOOK characters and this week has been, for me, Avengers Week. I hope that this statement of awesome geekiness will allow you to forgive me for being very silent this week in terms of posts...

Anticipating Joss Whedon's Avengers Assemble I have been through all the Avengers films this week. From tongue-in-cheek Iron Man to shirt-splitting Hulk, from Shakespeare-tongued, hammer-swinging Thor to war hero Captain America.

I have to say I've enjoyed all of them. As much as I love Christopher Nolan and his Batman films and the amazingness that is Watchmen, it's so refreshing to see superhero films that don't take themselves so seriously. Admittedly some attractive protagonists are always a plus... but, beyond that, the effects are brilliant, the comedy is top quality and there are some fierce female characters.
Joss Whedon isn't a stranger to strong female characters... and his quote on the subject has become a well-known and hopefully a well-used one. When asked why he always writes such strong female characters he simply responded: "Because you're still asking me that question."

I'm not a big comic person and I've read very few graphic novels but I'm nearly always a fan of the films. That's probably going to get me in trouble... but it's true! One of my all-time favourite films are superhero movies but I can't claim to have read any of the books beforehand. It's an interesting topic though when considering book to film adaptation. You'd have thought that comic books and graphic novels, being a visual medium, would translate easily and perfectly onto camera but that's not necessarily true. How do you put real people in those costumes and yet keep the film stylised in the same way as the books, especially when it is so hard for a film-maker to refuse the realistic special effects and convincing fight scenes on offer? 

Kindle Secrets

Hide your kindle betrayal in an old book... just one of many Kindle secrets... 

As a nosey commuter, I have to say that the kindle is a disappointment: how am I supposed to know what people are reading?? I like chuckling as people try to hide their Mills & Boon covers or judging what the bestsellers are and pretending to everyone that I just have 'the knowledge'...

It seems that kindle readers are more than aware of that, though. Kindlers have been for months now harbouring some bookish secrets...until now. Over the last couple of weeks E L James' Fifty Shades of Grey along with some other titles have soared up the Amazon bestseller charts putting erotica on the map where before titles tried to flutter their eyelids from the higher shelves in travel bookshops.

In my view, it's not just erotica that's getting a new lease of life in the burgeoning Kindle kingdom. Chick Lit has always done well, sure, but there are always people who are embarrassed to read books they feel are seen as 'trash'. Suddenly everyone has read JoJo Moyes latest tear-jerker, Me Before You, for instance. The Amazon charts are also being filled by first-time, self-published women writers talking about 'rising bosoms' and cupcake parties where publishers don't have the money to buy the rights and publicise them. Whether or not they should be published is a dilemma I won't go into - there's always going to be pros and cons - but it certainly gives new authors a chance.

If you're like me and want to know what people are reading, why not have a look at the survey that The Guardian have done, looking into just what commuters are reading...


The Guardian