Born December 18, 1870, Saki sharpened English prose into a calibrated weapon. Through precision, irony, and restraint, his stories expose cruelty beneath civility. A single sentence can overturn hierarchies, deny comfort, and end illusions. He proved that wit, perfectly timed, wounds deeper than noise. Calm language became lethal by design.
Birth of Saki (H. H. Munro) (1870–1916) – The Writer Who Perfected the Lethal Sentence in English
Erskine Caldwell reshaped American English by forcing it to speak in voices long ignored. His fiction used rural Southern dialect and blunt realism to expose poverty, inequality, and discomfort. English became less refined but more truthful, carrying social evidence instead of polish, and insisting that marginalized speech deserved narrative authority.
Birth of Erskine Caldwell (1903–1987) – The Voice That Forced English to Speak Poverty Aloud
I seem to say this every year, but 2025 really has been a great reading year for me. From new releases to treasures from the TBR to brilliant reissues and rediscoveries, the books have been excellent, with very few misses. As before, I’m splitting my favourite reads of the year into two parts, with thirteen […]
My Books of the Year, 2025 – Part 1
Born December 16, 1775, Jane Austen reshaped English fiction by refining irony, psychological realism, and narrative voice. Her novels taught English how to think on the page—balancing wit with moral insight, intimacy with distance—creating a prose style that observes, judges, and understands human nature with unmatched intelligence.
Birth of Jane Austen (1775–1817) – The Mind That Taught English Fiction How to Think
Born in Lancashire in 1917, Leonora Carrington is perhaps now best known as a surrealist artist; in 2024, one of her artworks sold for $28.5 million. During her career, however, she also wrote novels, short stories, a play and a memoir, all infused with her dreamlike, idiosyncratic worldview. First published in English in 1976 but […]
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
excerpt and pedal off. As soon as Tanya strolled in the other direction, Paul and Vera emerged from the bushes.“We must go in and see.” Vera dragged him to the rickety building.“We don’t need to,” he demurred.“You think I am a spy, but it is good to have this information. It is good to know […]
Jazz With Ella
Mervyn Peake, who died on November 17, 1968, crafted a literary world defined by shadow, grandeur, and imagination. His Gormenghast trilogy stands as a monumental fusion of Gothic atmosphere and poetic precision, proving that English prose can be both dreamlike and rigorously constructed.
Death of Mervyn Peake (1911 – 1968) – The Gothic Architect of English Imagination
Written in English (the author’s second language), Slanting Towards the Sea is the debut novel by the Croatian writer Lidija Hilje – a new name to me, but one I will be looking out for again in the future. Published in the UK by Daunt Books – a mark of quality, if ever there was […]
Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje
penwithlit