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A Respected Author's Picks

I am truly captivated by Namanlagh, this debut poetry collection in a decade by the esteemed Tom Paulin. A exquisitely crafted reflection on illness and recovery, companionship & authorship, violence & historical neglect, it is an absolute cracker. There are graceful references toward Derek Mahon & Seamus Heaney, and numerous verses are filled with the feeling of late style & unfinished business.

Political memoirs are usually disappointing, frequently screeds of excuses & revenge, however Nicola Sturgeon’s Frankly rewrites the genre. She is a skilled author, to begin with, who knows how to explore uncertainty, ambivalence, regret, affection & compassion, adaptability, along with numerous aspects that actually make people. I look forward to what she writes next.

I discovered an unfamiliar author – previously unknown, though beloved by Norwegians over decades. He is the deceased Dag Solstad , I devoured his book Shyness and Dignity over two sessions. It narrates the tale of an English instructor with a quarter-century career that suddenly breaks down while trying to deal with a broken umbrella. He is having a breakdown , the book charts it in an illuminating, unfussy manner, producing something beautiful.

I wish to provide additional homemade treats for my companions. In the near future, I’m going to run a brunch gathering at my dining table covered with homemade croissants, tattie scones, artisan loaves & whimsical desserts. I’m hoping to be helped in this quest by Helen Goh’s Baking and the Meaning of Life.

A Reader's Recommendation

Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions by Akshat Rathi came out last year. Every section describes a success story in the capitalist transition away from oil-dependent systems toward renewable energy and climate solutions, focusing on people that have achieved significant impact. It includes plenty of information & information I was unaware of before, despite my intensive reading around this topic.

While some issues spark debate, like CO2 sequestration – and Bill Gates turned out to be not quite the climate solutions man as portrayed in the book, with his fossil fuel investments – on the whole, the progress outlined give great hope. They show how certain governments have worked alongside private enterprise , are already moving toward a positive future, as innovative tools is developing rapidly. The scientific explanations are superb, as well. I had no idea the way solar panels functioned, for example.

Patricia Lockwood's Top Reads

Elaine Kraf’s Find Him! will be reprinted in November, making it an ideal moment to explore it, alternatively revisit her luminous, patterned The Princess of 72nd Street.

Down Below by Leonora Carrington is a classic. Although not the exact blueprint of my newest book, Will There Ever Be Another You, but I remember perusing it on a park bench during the pandemic and thinking: this is exactly what’s occurring to me. Moreover, it contains the closest approximation one might find to a diagram of God’s perineum.

Another major event – Airless Spaces from Shulamith Firestone first appeared over two decades ago, ten years after her schizophrenia diagnosis and withdrawal from society. She was an influential leader, already somewhat remote for activists of my generation, however these sketches, that explore her hospitalisations, feel immediate, close, defiant.

Andrew's Insight

Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter offers an understated and calm complex narrative. The story unfolds in the stark winter of 1962-63 and follows the experiences of two pairs residing opposite each other in the countryside of rural England. Closed in by their environment, the protagonists – Eric & Irene, Rita & Bill – grapple with their past & present, moving toward a dissolution. This is a beautifully written novel that reaffirms Miller as one of Britain’s finest writers on human nature.