The mother’s tale
‘I’m sick of this story of yours, this idea that it’s about drugs. If you want that to be the…
View ArticleSpoilt for choice
It is more than ten years since Natasha Walter published The New Feminism, a can-do look at the ‘uniquely happy…
View ArticleTriumph and disaster
The title of this first novel refers to a version of childhood as a magical kingdom where evil can be…
View ArticleCuckoo in the nest
Caradoc King, the well-known literary agent, was adopted in 1948 as a baby into a family of three girls, shortly…
View ArticleThe Daylight Gate, by Jeanette Winterson Claudia FitzHerbert
The story of the Pendle witch trials in 1612 is well known, thanks to the publication of The Wonderfull Disoverie…
View ArticleA guide to the media circus
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 03: (UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS OUT) Caitlin Moran poses in the press room at the Cosmopolitan Ultimate Women Of The Year Awards 2011 held at Banqueting House on November 3, 2011...
View ArticleWinning through
‘Experiences aren’t given us to be “got over”, otherwise they would hardly be experiences.’ The opening sentence of the first…
View ArticleA book for all ages
The genesis of The Road to Middlemarch was a fine article in the New Yorker about Rebecca Mead’s unsuccessful search…
View ArticleThe magic of bookshops
It is not uncommon for writers to be obsessed by bookshops. Some even find their writing feet through loving a…
View ArticleThere’s much of Astrid Lindgren in the carrot-haired rebel Pippi Longstocking
Inger Nilsson as Pippi Longstocking in the Swedish television series. Astrid Lindgren drew deeply on her own childhood for her books
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