David Annand
Marine Life
There’s a doubleness to the act of volunteering. On the face of it, by freely offering to do something you’re acting as an autonomous agent. But in practice, the act of volunteering is very often a response to something beyond your control: the poverty that necessitates charity, the global conflicts that demand recruits, and so on. To volunteer is to act in a way that both affirms the self and also confirms its insignificance.
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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