Tim Hilton
Stuff Happens
Taxidermy
By Alexis Turner
Thames & Hudson 256pp £19.95
People interested in the philosophy of taxidermy – they are not numerous, though some are found in natural history museums – have long found two impediments to their thoughts. The first is that taxidermists, though often eloquent about their own work, are seldom sagacious. The second is that the literature of the subject is never well illustrated. The best modern book on taxidermy known to me is Melissa Milgrom’s Still Life, cleverly put together from interviews with people who practise in the field – correction: who are practised in cutting up dead animals that used to be in fields. But Milgrom’s useful survey contains no illustrations whatsoever.
Yet what is taxidermy if it does not give us something to look at, in a museum or more often a home? It’s essentially a form of indoor decoration. You wouldn’t put a stuffed animal on your lawn, would you? Or perhaps some squires do, for lovers of the taxidermist’s
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
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk