Sophia Sackville-West
Sophia Sackville-West Stuffs the Stockings
I know that I am lucky to enjoy Christmas; lucky not to have to maintain a 24 hour truce with any member of my family; lucky not to have to endure conversations about the succulence of the turkey breast with a maiden aunt; and lucky not to have to spend a solitary 25th December switching from Walt Disney to Billy Smart with an empty bottle of Johnny Walker on my bedside table. One could easily be the only child entertaining ageing parents to gruesome jollifications in provincial hotels; or the Rock ’n Roll star who intended to obliterate a mere three days with a few handfuls of Ecstasy but who is now harmonising with the Heavenly Choir.
Well, the Academy Bookclub could provide a panacea without the Government Health Warning. I guarantee that a dose of Martin Amis’s new novel (London Fields, ABC price £8.95) will make the solitary bed-sit vigil seem positive bliss in comparison
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'The trouble seems to be that we are not asked to read this author, reading being a thing of the past. We are asked to decode him.'
From the archive, Derek Mahon peruses the early short fiction of Thomas Pynchon.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/rock-n-roll-is-here-to-stay
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553