HILARY SPURLING Anthony Powell: Dancing to the music of time. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
This biography of Anthony Powell is a fine examination of the creative process and the time between the two world wars. For those who have read and loved – or, as in my case, wallowed in – the 12 novels of A Dance to the Music of Time, this stunningly impressive...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on reviewing
I must have written hundreds of book reviews. I cut my teeth at the business when I was an academic, reviewing books in the fields of my own research – race relations in Australia and the Pacific. I was lucky; these were popular areas of research and published writing...
ANGELA MEYER Captives. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
Angela Meyer’s microfictions expose the shiny bare bones of narrative. It took me a while to find Captives in the bookshop, but finally I discovered it, a tiny little thing, sitting in a special display of its own. As it turns out, this separation is rather...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on literary biography
I’ve been reading biographies of two writers I admire in part – Norman Mailer and George Orwell. Literary biography is something I enjoy and the best examples of it, such as Richard Ellmann on Oscar Wilde and Norman Sherry on Graham Greene, have given me enormous...The Godfather: Peter Corris on a room of his own
My workroom is spacious, light and airy. It is detached from the house, joined to it by a short, covered walkway. It’s built of brick, is very well insulated, and solar panels on the roof supply most of the power to the electronics. The large window in one wall looks...The Godfather: Peter Corris on books he’s glad to have read
Recently I was asked to name five books that everyone should read. That old chestnut. I declined; people have such different tastes and read in such different ways that the idea makes no sense. I offered instead ‘five books I’m glad to have read’. This was accepted. I...
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