Monday miscellany

    -    In relation to our forthcoming book group reading/discussion of Jane Eyre, many of us wondered how we would respond to the book now, coming back to it later in life, having first read it in our teens. The almost inevitable change in perspective we will bring to it is very interesting for many reasons, not least as Diane Setterfield says, "To reread is not only to circle back in time to a book, but to rediscover yourself and measure the distance – and the closeness – between who you are and who you used to be".

    -    The Romantic Novel of the Year Award has gone to Joss Stirling for her Young Adult novel Struck. It's the first time a YA book has triumphed, but regardless of genre, a prize is no surprise when you realise that Joss Stirling is actually Julia Golding who is very good both on the page and in person, as you'll see here.

    -    On the subject of literary prizes, I intended to write about The Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize when it was awarded back in November and somehow the post never materialised, but the book which won sounds as though it would be of interest to many of us, so better late than never ... Those Wild Wyndhams: Three Sisters at the Heart of Power by Claudia Renton, was commended by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, biographer herself and one of the judges for the prize: "Mary, Madeline and Pamela Wyndham’s connections – familial, sexual and social – place them at the heart of a Britain which was brought to an end by the First World War. Through their love affairs and marriages, their house-parties and their patronage, the three sisters dominated a milieu where high society, high finance, politics and the arts were interconnected. Biography has been called the “higher gossip” – this book, ingeniously structured and written with fluency and wit, demonstrates how enjoyable, and how historically illuminating, high gossip can be."

Comments

[LizF]

I liked the look of Those Wild Wyndhams when it first came out and requested it from the library but gave up waiting for it after 6 months! Perhaps it is time to take another look!