I began reading the shortened version of Virginia’s diaries covering the years 1915 to 1941, and it has an introduction by Quentin Bell, her nephew. I was fascinated to read ‘The novice will very likely have heard ill of the writer I am trying to present. She was, we are frequently told, snobbish, elitist and… Continue Reading
Strong-hearted stories, dark & funny
HORRID V.
I began reading the enormous biography on Virginia Woolf by James King because she is so much applauded and I wanted to find a way of admiring her as much as I admire her friend Katherine Mansfield, or the writer Jane Bowles, two women and also writers, who I am sure could drive people crazy,… Continue Reading
Virginia’s Mud.
I’ve now reached the years 1921 to 1923 in James King’s biography of Virginia Woolf. She has met, made friends with, adored and hated with equal vigour the fantastic New Zealand writer, Katherine Mansfield. She is becoming successful and known as a writer and has collected stringent criticisms and a great deal of praise for… Continue Reading
VIRGINIA’S FEAR OF INSANITY
Apparently, Virginia Woolf’s novel Night and Day is thought to be the most conventional of her works, she said:- I was so tremblingly afraid of my own insanity that I wrote Night and Day mainly to prove to my own satisfaction that I could keep entirely off that dangerous ground.[I take it she means the… Continue Reading
VIRGINIA AND PUBLISHING
I’m still finding it hard to quite absorb how mentally sick Virginia was capable of becoming. But I’ve reached a point in the biography in which she is well again around 1916 to 18. The irony of this story is that her publisher was Gerald Duckworth, the half-brother who molested her when she was six.… Continue Reading
I’M AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF SLIGHTLY
I’d always supposed that Virginia Woolf suffered from depression and eventually killed herself, so some of the really vile things she said about people struck me as hideous snobbery, and therefore I had no empathy with her at all, and was disinclined to get too close to her work. However, it turns out that her… Continue Reading
THAT FINE MAN HENRY MAYHEW
Now that I’ve had my latest collection of stories accepted for publication, I’ve turned my attention to a novel that I’ve been thinking about writing which uses Henry Mayhew, the sociologist and reporter, as a central character. So far, I have found very little biographical material on him, surprising since he was so vocal in… Continue Reading
What’s Virginia Woolf Afraid of?
‘Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ could better be turned about after what I’ve recently read of her in the biography Virginia Woolf by James King, (Hamish Hamilton 1994). ‘What’s Virginia Woolf Afraid of?’ is more fitting. I have reached the point in my reading, roughly one third of the way through the book, where she… Continue Reading
THE EMERGENCE OF OOTHANGBART
I’m delighted that my short novel, Oothangbart, will be published this year by Pillar International Publishing, what makes me even happier about it, is that my publisher, Mark Lloyd, (no relation biologically), feels this novel, and because it is precious to me, to have a publisher for whom the work resonates, is terrific. I wrote… Continue Reading
Bogieman Short Story New Fictions Winner
I entered my story Bogieman into a competition for long short stories because I wanted to see if it would get shortlisted, and I thought that if it did, then I was managing okay with this new, to me, form of writing. I have sensed the long short story making a comeback for a couple… Continue Reading
