I first heard of the British Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie in 2012, although by then she’d been published for over a decade. I spotted a story about her in The Guardian after she’d spent a few days at Artangel’s A Room for London project, when a boat was mounted on top of the Southbank Centre,… Read More Literary Loves: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
The baby is a year old, and though he is not sleeping through the night, I’m finally starting to feel like my own person again. This littlest one of ours has had the most demanding baby year, or perhaps it has been harder for us all because he has had to slot into the needs… Read More Literary Loves: The Power by Naomi Alderman
It’s Virginia Woolf’s birthday today. She was born 134 years ago, and died in 1941 at the age of 59, driven to commit suicide by her depression. I can see the scene in my mind’s eye: her gaunt frame, mournful eyes, walking with weighted pockets into a river. I’m unsure whether the image in my… Read More Remembering Virginia Woolf