The little white attic

1/ When I picked up Cecilia , having enjoyed Evelina , I wondered, is this a masterpiece unjustly neglected? Why is Frances Burney not widel...

For this list, I imposed on myself a few rules:  a) only name adaptations of novels I have read (e.g. I can’t name Little Women );  b) exclu...

Lately I’ve been thinking about what it is that I like so much about Muriel Spark. One reason, I suppose, is her sense of humour, her mischi...

As I recently picked up Barbara Pym and now just read Penelope Fitzgerald, the term “quiet novel” has popped up a lot.  I didn’t know what i...

1/ As I consider buying a Muriel Spark omnibus, I’m idly thinking about the books I own. We all know reading and book buying are two differe...

I don’t blog about everything I read. I’ve realised that there are writers I like that for some reason I’ve never written about, such as Aku...

Recently I’ve been watching the Zatoichi films. Have you heard of Zatoichi, the blind masseur/swordsman? The original series consists of 26 ...

I quit on Jane and Prudence after about 50 pages.  Some of you will probably say I’m missing the point, but Barbara Pym writes about the tr...

In June, I finally got to visit the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire.  In September, I visited Jane Austen’s grave at Winch...

 1/ When I picked up Cecilia , I wanted to promote Frances Burney—why is she not better known and widely read?  Look at her achievements. As...

1/ Evelina , Frances Burney’s first book, is an epistolary novel, but because it’s mainly composed of Evelina’s letters narrating her experi...

 1/ When asked whether we know a writer if we only read them in translation, I suppose most people would say either yes or no. I think it de...