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
On November 2, 1960, a London jury declared Lady Chatterley’s Lover “not guilty” of obscenity — freeing not only a book but the English language itself. The verdict ended an era of censorship and began one of honesty, where love, class, and desire could finally be written in plain speech.
The Lady Chatterley’s Lover Trial (1960) – Breaking the Silence of English Literature
Henry Green (1905–1973) redefined English prose through silence, rhythm, and understatement. His novels transformed everyday speech into art, revealing emotion in the unsaid and poetry in the ordinary. A quiet modernist, Green’s restrained style proved that English fiction could whisper truth more powerfully than it could shout.
Birth of Henry Green (1905 – 1973) – The Quiet Modernist of English Prose
Born on October 22, 1919, Doris Lessing redefined English fiction as a tool of liberation and self-examination. Her fearless prose, from The Golden Notebook to her political essays, gave English new emotional and moral dimensions — a language capable of truth, rebellion, and psychological depth that reshaped modern consciousness.
Birth of Doris Lessing (1919–2013) – The Radical Mind of Modern English Fiction
Regular readers of this blog are probably aware of my fondness for Barbara Comyns – a startlingly original writer with a very distinctive style. Her novels have a strange, slightly off-kilter feel, frequently blending surreal imagery and touches of dark, deadpan humour with the harsh realities of life. This wry sense of the absurd is […]
The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
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