I'm a bad bad person who never posts, yet people still, inexplicably, want to be my friends and read what I don't write!

Must do better.

In the meantime, I may as well admit that I've joined Facebook, where I use a more recent photo. If any of you would like to "friend" me there, please do.

Current Location: the old same place
Current Mood: guilty

Looking through an old notebook, I found a list of the books I read in July 1979.  I confess, I don't remember much -- in some cases anything -- about most of them.  Here it is:

So Much Blood by Simon Brett
Raw Silk by Janet Burroway
Cannibals and Kings by Marvin Harris
Love Kills by Dan Greenburg
There's Trouble Brewing by Nicholas Blake
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
Our Lady of Pain by John Blackburn
I, James McNeill Whistler by Lawrence Williams
The Key to Midnight by Leigh Nichols
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Strange Eons by Robert Bloch
The Fly on the Wall by Tony Hillerman
The City Lover by Andrea Newman
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
The White Album by Joan Didion
Wayland's Keep by Angela Bull
Life in the English Country House by Mark Girouard
Alexandra by Valerie Martin

I still keep reading lists; for comparison, here's my list for July 2009:

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock (re-read)
A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists by Rachel Cohen
Nowhere-Land by A.W. Hill
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (re-read)

One obvious difference is that, 30 years on, I don't get through so many books in a month.  In the summer of 1979, I'd just quit my job, and maybe I hadn't quite figured out how I needed to make better use of my time as a full-time writer...or maybe I read faster in those days.  I undoubtedly devoted more hours to reading. There was no internet back then, and as I only had a small, black and white TV set in an un-airconditioned living room, I rarely watched it that summer, preferring to lie in the air-conditioned bedroom with a book, or beneath a shady tree on the lake shore. 

Tags: books
Current Location: Chilly Scotland
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: wind in the trees

"Her voice was like old red velvet; it had extraordinary depth.  On the telephone it could be mistaken for a man's voice."

"that throaty, deepish, wholly attractive voice"

"light, musical, with a throaty note, it was one of her great charms."

"her unusually pleasing voice"

"low-pitched but electrifying"

"She was like somebody belonging to another world and I was entranced by her... She had a lovely musical voice, but even this did not alter the effect of not quite belonging to the world."

Do you know who is being described, above? 

If you want a clue, I'll list the people who said the above about their friend -- scroll down; (if you don't want a clue, look away now)





In order:  Nigel Nicholson, Rose Macaulay, Rosamund Lehmann, Angus Davidson, Francis Partridge, Alix Strachey.

Got it? 

Listening to Radio Four this morning Iearned for the first time that Marilyn French had died. (A few days ago, aged 79)  The Today Programme had invited Sarah Dunant and Christina Odone to discuss the significance of French's most famous book, The Women's Room.  I was slightly apprehensive, expecting a typical & pointless argument about feminism between two women with differing politics, but was very pleasantly surprised by how sane and affirmative the comments were ... at one point the presenter (John Humphries? I can't remember) sort-of-jokingly complained that he wasn't getting a word in edgewise...and then swiftly tried to turn that into a compliment -- how rare and pleasant it was, etc.  The two women burst into laughter, and then very politely and attentively paused [astonishing how visual radio can seem sometimes!] for him to say something.  He stumbled his way towards a question. 

Of course, both his guests have loads of experience as speakers and presenters on radio themselves.  But listening to them was heartening -- too often these discussions are nothing more than an excuse for a sort of faux-debate, neither side really listening to each other as they trot out their lines and try to talk over each other and have to be stopped by the host so the other one gets equal time. And that laughter... the laughter of women together.... it lifted my heart and stirred an old memory but I couldn't put my finger on it... Finally I had to dig out one of my External Memory Repositories (aka a book I wrote many years ago called Encyclopedia of Feminism) and eventually -- even though there's not an entry on Laughter (which I now think there should be) -- I found it --

A Question of Silence was a film made by Maureen Gorris (Netherlands) in 1981, and ends in a scene in court, with laughter spreading and swelling through all the women present.  A wonderful scene, exhilaratingly subversive as I remember.

As for The Women's Room  (getting back to Marilyn French), I recall that when I read it, probably not too long after it came out in 1977, I was disappointed.  It struck me as out-dated, a blast from the past, and of little relevance to me, personally.  Well, I was young -- Marilyn French was old enough to be my mother --  and what she wrote about seemed very remote, it just didn't chime in with my own experiences of life or relationships. Also, it was quite a depressing book.  So, I had a very narrow view, and the fact that it became such a big best-seller surprised me -- obviously, it affected many women much more deeply.  I know that in Britain the book was published with the shout-line "This Book Will Change Your Life!"  And a recent survey of women readers confirmed that many of them felt that it truly had. 

Tags: marilyn french; the women's room; femini
Current Mood: hopeful

I sure am sorry now that I gave away my old Singer sewing machine (untouched in nearly 20 years).  See "Sewing machine hoax hits S. Arabia.":  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7999168.stm

First time I'd heard of this!

Tags: singer sewing machines
Current Mood: amused

It's kind of insane, I know, to make a purchase like this at a time when I am trying to clear more books OUT of my house, but I have just bought THE NEW ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES  (edited with notes by Leslie S. Klinger) -- all three huge volumes.

But - oh! -- they are SO wonderful!  Pictures, notes, and of course, the stories and novels themselves. And of course -- since I already had the complete works in paperback -- it is mainly all the notes I wanted it for.  Original illustrations, old photographs, etc. are very nice, too, but it's the notes about what one scholar (or enthusiast) or other has puzzled out regarding Holmes' private life based on hints and suggestions in "the canon" that I think I love the most. Was he gay? Was he married? Formerly married? Was he a woman? Was Mycroft actually in league with criminals? Hours of endless fun!  Such intense scrutiny devoted to a fictional character makes me think -- can Holmes truly be called fictional? He seems more real than many people who actually lived.

Tags: sherlock holmes; books
Current Mood: happy

Besides the one I'm currently writing, that is. (Don't go there!)

I was just looking at the stack of books on the bedside table & realized I have probably too many on the go at the same time.  All non-fiction -- I don't often put down one novel to start reading another (that is, intending to get back to the first) except on an assignment.  But non-fiction is different. I am currently reading:

THE LOST (A Search for Six of Six Million) by Daniel Mendelsohn
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD by Jonathan Black
A CHANCE MEETING (Intertwined Lives of American writers and artists) by Rachel Cohen
ABOUT WRITING (7 Essays, 4 Letters & 5 Interviews) by Samuel R. Delany

I thought I would put down the Delany after a couple of essays and get back to finishing THE LOST (which I need to take back to the library) but it turned out to be exactly what I was most needing to read right now, and I haven't. It is FULL of good stuff and insights about literature and writing and reading.  The only thing it lacks is an index -- I neglected to make notes of a couple of things, at least one of which I wanted to quote here, and it's going to take me awhile to find them again.  I think I've been spoiled by computer-searches -- books require me to use my failing memory more.

What a good & thoughtful book. Definitely one for every serious writer's collection; published by Wesleyan University Press in 2005. 

Tags: writing; reading; samuel r. delany
Current Location: home
Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: a bit of Bach

Just got a flyer through the door advertising the opening of a new hair and beauty salon in the village.  Always nice to hear about a new business in these troubled economic times, and I'm guessing that one of the young ladies running it (they only give their first names) is the same person who did a very good job of cutting my hair a few months ago, just after she qualified as a hairdresser.

Then I scanned down the list of "Available Treatments" -- hair colouring, styling and cutting isn't even mentioned, I supppose all those things can be taken for granted -- and noticed along with the !!!!SUNBED!!!  (exclaimation marks theirs) they'll be offering aromatherapy, massage, light therapy, colourpuncture [huh??], Past Life Regression --

Oh, hang on.  I'm not really sure I want to go to a beauty salon that offers such things.  I can just imagine lying there on the sunbed, only to discover I'm suddenly on the sands of ancient Egypt, about to get a whipping if I don't get back to work on building that pyramid...or worse! 

And I wonder what sort of therapy "colourpuncture" might be.  Like acupuncture, only instead of using needles (such a turn-off) maybe beams of coloured light...??

Tags: local news
Current Location: five miles from the village
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: silence

The short-list for the Arthur C. Clarke Award is still a few weeks away from being decided, but -- for the first time ever, I think -- a list of all the books the judges have had in to read and consider (46) has been made public, here: http://vectoreditors.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/2009-arthur-c-clarke-award-submissions/

Thus allowing plenty of time for anyone interested to try to out-guess them.

Feeling that I'd at least SEEN (even if not actually read) every single SF novel published in Britain in 2008, I was surprised to find there were still a few on that list I didn't know. But not many. Another caveat:  I've only read one (or two -- depends on your definition, I guess) of the "mainstream" titles. 

But I won't let that stop me.  Here's my idea of what the short-list should look like:

OMEGA by Christopher Evans
THE NIGHT SESSIONS by Ken MacLeod
THE QUIET WAR by Paul McAuley
HOUSE OF SUNS by Alistair Reynolds
ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson
... and since I think it's usually a list of six, that leaves a space for either a book I haven't read, or another one that I wouldn't at all object to seeing there, e.g.:
MATTER by Iain M. Banks or WINTERSTRIKE by Liz Williams or SATURN'S CHILDREN by Charles Stross or even HALTING STATE by Charles Stross (again! what it must be, to be so prolific that your novels can be in competition with themselves)

I hadn't even heard of THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO by Patrick Ness before but what a great title!  Looking it up, it sounds terrific, definitely one I have to read, and also like it could be strong enough to overcome my dislike of putting YA titles in competition against novels written for grown-ups.  (I love a lot of children's books, but it just doesn't seem right or fair to me to cross categories that way.  Yet there will always be the occasional exception, a book that transcends boundaries, and these days I think some books that really were originally intended for adults -- and would certainly never have been published as such twenty years ago -- get published as YA for marketing reasons.)  I also haven't read KETHANI by Eric Brown, but intend to do so very soon, maybe even before the real short-list is announced.

Tags: arthur c. clarke awards
Current Location: world-o-work
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: silence

I heard the news today, oh boy!

Sir Terry Pratchett!

How great is that?

I don't think the announcement of any other knighthood ever made me smile so much as this news did today.


Still on the subject of knighthoods, titles, and listening to the news, what is the deal with "Sir Alan" (or Allen, I haven't seen it written ) the billionaire con-man from Texas -- I didn't think that a) Brits were supposed to give away such-like honours to non-Brits or that b) proud American citizens were allowed to accept them if they did!  Something wrong here, surely.

Tags: sir terry pratchet; titles
Current Mood: happy