Literary Ramblings

A few more bits & pieces that I found interesting as I wasted time on the internet when I probably should have been doing something else. Taking photos of the girls probably isn't the most effective use of my time either but I was so stunned to see Lucky (on the right) lounging in the sun on Phoebe's purple bed the other day that I couldn't resist. That wary look is just her default expression although she's never happy to see me approaching with a camera, phone or iPad. I think she was just too comfortable to move. The photo of Phoebe was taken on a lovely late winter afternoon the previous week.

The covers for the much-anticipated reprints by Scott of Furrowed Middlebrow (in conjunction with Dean Street Press) have been unveiled. I've already preordered the Winifred Pecks & A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell. Can't wait to get my hands on these.

One of my favourite podcasts is Chat 10 Looks 3 with Leigh Sales & Annabel Crabb. In the latest episode they recommended Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast. Gladwell is an author & "global thinker", probably what used to be called a public intellectual. In this 10 part series, he looks back at moments in history that have been overlooked & reconsiders their importance. The first episode is about Elizabeth Thompson, better known as Lady Butler, a Victorian artist best known for her monumental pictures of military subjects. Everything about her career was unusual & typical of her sex & time. She was a woman artist in an age when women couldn't attend art school or attend life classes (unless they were the model); she became famous when her picture, The Roll-Call, was exhibited at the Royal Academy; she was not elected to the all-male Academy & her career ended when she married. Gladwell is very interesting on all these points & he interviews former Prime Minister Julia Gillard for another angle on the difficulties of being the first in her field. I'm looking forward to listening to the other nine episodes.

An extract from John le Carré's memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, has been published in The Guardian. I'm looking forward to this after reading Adam Sisman's biography of le Carré earlier this year.

More books have entered this house lately than are really necessary but one that is entirely necessary & that I'm very excited about is Caught in the Revolution by Helen Rappaport. The story of Petrograd in 1917 told by the outsiders, the foreigners who were living in the city at the time. I'm a fan of Helen's, having loved Four Sisters & Magnificent Obsession. This is definitely next off the tbr pile, actually, it's not even going to make it on to the pile, it's on my reading table already.