D J Taylor
Been There, Done That
Although his last outing, Solar (2010), showed traces of that very un-McEwanish quality, a sense of humour, most readers asked to come up with Ian McEwan’s defining characteristic as a novelist would settle for the earnestness that runs through his work like the lettering through a stick of rock. Thirty years ago, in The Comfort of Strangers, he was being earnest about the women’s movement. Come the mid-Eighties, in the oratorio Or Shall We Die?, he was being earnest about the Bomb. Just lately he has been earnest about such problems as US intervention in the Middle East, the unconsummated marriages of the Macmillan era and global warming.
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'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency