I'm reading (and writing about) the Pulitzer Prize winners from the Novel/Fiction category. I've found one author that I want to read every single word she ever wrote (Edith Wharton), plus a few other authors that were enjoyable and completely unknown to me. I love discovering new authors - one of the many reasons your work is so appreciated!
That sounds like a great idea for a series, I have signed up! Looking forward to discovering authors I’m not familiar with. - thanks for your lovely note.
Ann, I'm so happy to have you along for this ride! The Laureates post is on Wednesdays. On Mondays, I am serializing a novel, and on Fridays, I'm writing Memoir (some of which must be approved by my children before posting!). Thank you, again, for subscribing!
Thank you so much, Ann, for your fascinating posts, and for remembering Käthe Schuftan, who hopefully will be no longer forgotten. There will be an exhibition of her work at the Arts & Crafts Church in Middleton, Manchester, in September. I'll post details. Also we are hoping for an exhibition next year in the Manchester Jewish Museum.
You are welcome, June, and like you I had to peer closely at this reproduction and wasn't quite sure... but next time I'm in Newnham I will definitely look for evidence of darning. So pleased you have discovered Sheena's wonderful work.
Lots to savour here... I too loved June's post - and AJ Pearce's list - and Ariane's book, I so agree with your recommendation. Intriguing little Mitford connection with the Paget sisters...
My goodness, Ann. How do you get so much done? I’m in awe. Every one of your posts is a gem. Lectures, reading, reviews, book discussions on top of everything. Here I sit, like the cows in the shade. I promise to catch up as soon as I can!
Ah, thanks Mary, that's very kind! Hmm, maybe I'm a bit too prolific... sitting quietly in the shade sounds like a good plan to me, and your writing is very much worth waiting for.
I've just finished Marina Warner's new book, Sanctuary: Ways of Telling, Ways of Dwelling, which is brilliant and moving. (She gave an online talk on the subject for the Folklore Society last night that I'm going to be thinking about for a long time.) Now I'm re-reading Gaudy Night for the umpteenth time, entirely due to your posts about it.
Thank you so much for the recommendation of the Judith Mackrell's new book on Gwen and Augustus John, which will be next on my reading list. I'm curious to see how it compares to previous biographies, and looking forward to re-visiting their fascinating lives once again. Augustus and his complicated family used to camp in gypsy caravans here on Dartmoor too. Dorelia gave birth to their eldest child, Pyramus, during one of those camps.
That book by Marina Warner sounds excellent! I reviewed her memoir a few years ago for the TLS and really enjoyed it, she’s a legendary figure herself (in every sense). I was pleased to discover Mackrell’s new book, and though I have only dipped into it so far, I can see it’s going to be good. It’s impressive that she’s highlighting a sibling relationship too.
Have always loved Jane Ellen, with Gilbert Murray and more contemporary Edith Hall (but let's not talk Oxford!), my companions through my Classics Studies. All her Apostle friends and the Cornfords. And Eileen Power, another one of my favourite ladies. Looking forward to the rest of that series, will there be some clips on YouTube I wonder? Thank you for identifying the JW Steer painting for us - growing up in Victorian Tenby with Gwen and Augustus John and Nina Hamnett as well, quite a few retired military families were there at the time. Graham Sutherland of course later, inspiring good Welsh artists like John Fisher Knapp. Lovely art museum in Tenby on the cliff edge if anyone is going that way this summer.
So pleased you know about Jane Harrison and the others (I think Oxbridge classicists got on well!) Fascinating to have that information about Tenby, it really packed a punch in terms of artists, didn't it. I would love to visit the museum, another excellent reason to go back to Pembrokeshire! Thanks for the recommendation, Mandi.
Peter and I have both just devoured the new novel from Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures, out in paperback. We've loved all of her work, Small Pleasures was her last, longlisted for the Booker, I believe. She sets her work south of London, this time in the 1960s, and it's a world perfectly reimagined. Helen is teaching art therapy in an asylum at a point when attitudes to mental health are changing fast. But delving into the past of her newest patient will be a catalyst for change in her own life. Beautifully written, as always.
That new novel by Clare Chambers does sound good, and I'm interested in changing attitudes to mental health around that time. Your research will inform you about the 1960s background, I imagine.
That's wonderful news about Jenny Uglow's new biography. Her book on Hogarth is one of my all time fave biographies.
I'm currently reading "Orbital", very slowly, and enjoying it. I'm looking forward to revisiting "A Passion for Narrative" by Jack Hodgins, which I first read 20 years ago. I'm pet sitting for friends and found it on their shelf. It was like bumping into an old friend.
Thanks Ollie, glad you're enjoying Orbital and I don't know that book by Jack Hodgins, but that's a great hook ('like bumping into an old friend') perhaps you might write a post introducing it sometime...
Have been so terrible with reading recently that I appreciate the book links, perhaps I can be lured! Also loved the portrait - dishevelment looks very different nowadays!
Thank you, it occurred to me that Augustus John must have been aware of Manet's Olympia... by comparison, Jane Harrison's dishevelled clothing is pretty restrained! And I always enjoy your cultural links in whatever form they come.
You are very welcome Katy, and good choice re Cranford, that would be a perfect one to take away and re-read while travelling. It's great when portrait painter and subject work so well together!
I'm reading (and writing about) the Pulitzer Prize winners from the Novel/Fiction category. I've found one author that I want to read every single word she ever wrote (Edith Wharton), plus a few other authors that were enjoyable and completely unknown to me. I love discovering new authors - one of the many reasons your work is so appreciated!
That sounds like a great idea for a series, I have signed up! Looking forward to discovering authors I’m not familiar with. - thanks for your lovely note.
Ann, I'm so happy to have you along for this ride! The Laureates post is on Wednesdays. On Mondays, I am serializing a novel, and on Fridays, I'm writing Memoir (some of which must be approved by my children before posting!). Thank you, again, for subscribing!
Thank you so much, Ann, for your fascinating posts, and for remembering Käthe Schuftan, who hopefully will be no longer forgotten. There will be an exhibition of her work at the Arts & Crafts Church in Middleton, Manchester, in September. I'll post details. Also we are hoping for an exhibition next year in the Manchester Jewish Museum.
That's lovely to hear, Hephzi, you have done great work on this. An important part of Manchester's history.
Thank you so much Ann for mentioning my post!
That's a wonderful portrait - I was looking especially for the darned stocking! Such a touch of normality!
I discovered Sheena GriffithsBaker last week. Her work is so lovely - paintings and writing.
You are welcome, June, and like you I had to peer closely at this reproduction and wasn't quite sure... but next time I'm in Newnham I will definitely look for evidence of darning. So pleased you have discovered Sheena's wonderful work.
Thank you so much Ann for the kind mention!
Lots to savour here... I too loved June's post - and AJ Pearce's list - and Ariane's book, I so agree with your recommendation. Intriguing little Mitford connection with the Paget sisters...
Best of all: the Cambridge cows.
My pleasure, Laura, and there may be a gap between the glamorous Paget sisters and the Cambridge cows, but I enjoyed thinking about both!
My goodness, Ann. How do you get so much done? I’m in awe. Every one of your posts is a gem. Lectures, reading, reviews, book discussions on top of everything. Here I sit, like the cows in the shade. I promise to catch up as soon as I can!
Ah, thanks Mary, that's very kind! Hmm, maybe I'm a bit too prolific... sitting quietly in the shade sounds like a good plan to me, and your writing is very much worth waiting for.
Ann, you’re very kind.🙏💛
I love this portrait and Harrison's quote about it seems spot on!
Yes, doesn’t it? John liked to paint people who’d done a few rounds. Thanks, Jeffrey.
I've just finished Marina Warner's new book, Sanctuary: Ways of Telling, Ways of Dwelling, which is brilliant and moving. (She gave an online talk on the subject for the Folklore Society last night that I'm going to be thinking about for a long time.) Now I'm re-reading Gaudy Night for the umpteenth time, entirely due to your posts about it.
Thank you so much for the recommendation of the Judith Mackrell's new book on Gwen and Augustus John, which will be next on my reading list. I'm curious to see how it compares to previous biographies, and looking forward to re-visiting their fascinating lives once again. Augustus and his complicated family used to camp in gypsy caravans here on Dartmoor too. Dorelia gave birth to their eldest child, Pyramus, during one of those camps.
That book by Marina Warner sounds excellent! I reviewed her memoir a few years ago for the TLS and really enjoyed it, she’s a legendary figure herself (in every sense). I was pleased to discover Mackrell’s new book, and though I have only dipped into it so far, I can see it’s going to be good. It’s impressive that she’s highlighting a sibling relationship too.
Have always loved Jane Ellen, with Gilbert Murray and more contemporary Edith Hall (but let's not talk Oxford!), my companions through my Classics Studies. All her Apostle friends and the Cornfords. And Eileen Power, another one of my favourite ladies. Looking forward to the rest of that series, will there be some clips on YouTube I wonder? Thank you for identifying the JW Steer painting for us - growing up in Victorian Tenby with Gwen and Augustus John and Nina Hamnett as well, quite a few retired military families were there at the time. Graham Sutherland of course later, inspiring good Welsh artists like John Fisher Knapp. Lovely art museum in Tenby on the cliff edge if anyone is going that way this summer.
So pleased you know about Jane Harrison and the others (I think Oxbridge classicists got on well!) Fascinating to have that information about Tenby, it really packed a punch in terms of artists, didn't it. I would love to visit the museum, another excellent reason to go back to Pembrokeshire! Thanks for the recommendation, Mandi.
https://museumcrush.org/i-have-always-loved-my-beautiful-birthplace-augustus-john-in-tenby/
Thank you so much for the mention. Lots to explore here. Looking forward to diving into AJ’s list in particular.
My pleasure Helen and AJ has hit on a rich seam of nostalgia for older books! A few there I hadn't heard of before.
Peter and I have both just devoured the new novel from Clare Chambers, Shy Creatures, out in paperback. We've loved all of her work, Small Pleasures was her last, longlisted for the Booker, I believe. She sets her work south of London, this time in the 1960s, and it's a world perfectly reimagined. Helen is teaching art therapy in an asylum at a point when attitudes to mental health are changing fast. But delving into the past of her newest patient will be a catalyst for change in her own life. Beautifully written, as always.
That new novel by Clare Chambers does sound good, and I'm interested in changing attitudes to mental health around that time. Your research will inform you about the 1960s background, I imagine.
That's wonderful news about Jenny Uglow's new biography. Her book on Hogarth is one of my all time fave biographies.
I'm currently reading "Orbital", very slowly, and enjoying it. I'm looking forward to revisiting "A Passion for Narrative" by Jack Hodgins, which I first read 20 years ago. I'm pet sitting for friends and found it on their shelf. It was like bumping into an old friend.
Thanks Ollie, glad you're enjoying Orbital and I don't know that book by Jack Hodgins, but that's a great hook ('like bumping into an old friend') perhaps you might write a post introducing it sometime...
Thanks for the mention! I love this bit of context for academic women, and both paintings you show here.
Thank you Victoria, it was fun thinking about Jane Harrison and I do love Sheena's paintings (my brilliant & lovely friend).
I love Jane Ellen's description of her portrait.
Thanks Lyn, she had such a brilliant way with words, it's absolutely spot on.
What a wonderful portrait - she sounds like someone it would have been a privilege to have had as a tutor!
Yes I think her students were very lucky... I love that this painter really seemed to capture her character.
Have been so terrible with reading recently that I appreciate the book links, perhaps I can be lured! Also loved the portrait - dishevelment looks very different nowadays!
Thank you, it occurred to me that Augustus John must have been aware of Manet's Olympia... by comparison, Jane Harrison's dishevelled clothing is pretty restrained! And I always enjoy your cultural links in whatever form they come.
Ann, thank you so much for promoting my post! You are so generous!
I look forward to reading more about Harrison. The painting is striking!
Not mentioned in my post... I recently read Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell, and it was a lovely comfort read.
You are very welcome Katy, and good choice re Cranford, that would be a perfect one to take away and re-read while travelling. It's great when portrait painter and subject work so well together!