Diana Athill
The Triumph of Love
The Three of Us: A Memoir
By Julia Blackburn
Jonathan Cape 320pp £16.99
I am on the verge of feeling hostile towards books about people surviving appalling childhoods, and it seems that I am not alone in feeling like that: I have just read a piece by Libby Brooks in The Guardian in which she remarks that shelves seem to be ‘heaving’ with them nowadays – a suggestive choice of verb. So I had reservations about embarking on Julia Blackburn’s memoir, which tells just such a story. The fact that I was unable to put it down is proof of how well she tells it, and of how such an experience, if described with real skill, honesty and sensitivity, will make a valuable book, however many others of a similar kind have been published.
Julia’s father was a poet addicted to alcohol and barbiturates who was often savagely violent, and her mother was a painter addicted to self-love and sex, incapable of recognising anyone’s needs but her own. Both of them were in the habit of claiming that Being an Artist justified disgusting behaviour,
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Were Victorian female detectives merely accessories to male colleagues, or were they pioneers of female liberation?
@claire_harman investigates.
Claire Harman - Handbags & Handcuffs
Claire Harman: Handbags & Handcuffs - The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge
literaryreview.co.uk
Absolutely delighted to be on the cover of the august @Lit_Review with my review of @questingvole's THE HAUNTED WOOD. A Splendid mag and a splendid book!
https://literaryreview.co.uk/oh-the-places-youll-go
As the Gallagher brothers prepare to swap their slippers for Wembley Stadium, @dannykellywords asks why rock stars never seem just to slide away into retirement:
Danny Kelly - Forever Young
Danny Kelly: Forever Young - Hope I Get Old Before I Die: Why Rock Stars Never Retire by David Hepworth
literaryreview.co.uk