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Bostin books
Santa’s been and gone and I hope he has left everyone something they wanted, particularly in books. As usual, the old fellow has come up with the literary goods for …
Read MoreBeaus in tight breeches
A few days ago I went to the Thomas Lawrence exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. I was especially interested in Lawrence, many of whose paintings I had seen in …
Read MoreThe Little Sprite
I’ve just finished reading Janet Todd’s marvellous Death and the Maidens. The story of Mary Wollstonecraft’s daughter Fanny is one of the saddest I have ever come across. Fanny seems …
Read MoreWriting for Nobody
I love reading other people’s diaries. Obviously I mean the historical ones, which makes it alright to pry. Or, if I was interested in the living, then it would be …
Read MoreFree at Last
One thing I saved up from my mini account of what I saw of the Historical Novel Society’s Conference in Manchester in October was the workshop Creative Writing, Creative Reading: …
Read MoreUnreadable books
One night when I was very young I was crossing a bit of wasteland in Sheffield when I said to my companion, “I never leave a book unfinished.” Struggling to …
Read MorePlaying Away
Last Saturday I enjoyed seven plays, four of them at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond and three in the London Library. The Orange Tree – a wonderful theatre I’ve mentioned …
Read MoreSpeculating Other Lives
I’ve been reading two biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft: Janet Todd’s Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life, and Lyndall Gordon’s Mary Wollstonecraft: A New Genus (which I have only recently started). I …
Read MorePuffing
I am sorry to say it, people seem to go to the theatre principally for their entertainment!So complains Sneer in Sheridan’s The Critic, and if that’s what people want that’s …
Read MoreAbbotsford
More poking about the homes of the literary great and the good this week with a visit to Walter Scott’s home, Abbotsford. Reminiscent of Walpole’s project, here is another attempt …
Read MoreHappy Birthday Penguin
I had a fascinating day and a half last week looking at penguins. I wasn’t at the zoo, but attending as much as I could of the University of Bristol’s …
Read MoreVotes for Women
The play is clever and witty, and it kept the audiences brimming with excitement and in roars of laughter. So said the Pall Mall Gazette in 1909 of Cicely Hamilton’s …
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