Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 397 )

• Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  Book Review by Jane V: I knew about Charlotte Perkins Gilman from her short autobiographical novel The Yellow Wallpaper but it was not until I searched for a(n? Read more

  Posted on 26 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• We That Were Young (1932) by Irene Rathbone.

  Book Review by Sylvia D: Members of our Reading Group will remember that what seems like a hundred years ago now when we still lived real lives, we were... Read more

  Posted on 17 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Men Like Gods (1923) by H.G. Wells

  

  Book review by Frances S: Settling down to begin reading Men Like Gods a day or two after The Prime Minister’s 23 March 2020 ‘lockdown’ speech, I was looking... Read more

  Posted on 11 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• ‘The Murder of Madame Mollard’ (1930) by Winifred Holtby

  

  Book Review by Chris Hopkins. This short feminist dystopia by Winifred Holtby is, as far as I can see, completely forgotten about, but well-worth recovering. Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Three Weeks (1907) by Elinor Glyn

  

  Book Review by Kathryn R: I found this book in the Old Pier Bookshop* in Morecambe while browsing for other books from 1900-1950. It was in the ‘collectables’... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Lord of the World (1907) by Robert Hugh Benson

  

  Book Review by Sylvia D: It’s striking that all the reviews that have been posted so far have been of dystopian novels. I wonder if that is a reflection of the... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London

  

  Book review by Alice C: Jack London wrote The Iron Heel, a dystopian novel, in 1908. It sold over 50,000 copies in hardback and according to Wikipedia, London... Read more

  Posted on 04 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Impromptu in Moribundia (1939) by Patrick Hamilton

  

  Book review by George S: Patrick Hamilton is well known as the chronicler of the seedier side of London – the run-down boarding houses and the dubious pubs. Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

  

  Book review by Mary P: When we were given the choice between utopian and dystopian fiction this month, I immediately went for the former. Read more

  Posted on 02 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Swastika Nights (1937) By Murray Constantine

  

  Book Review by Kathryn R: This novel set some 700 years in the future is by Katherine Burdekin, writing under a pseudonym. Katherine Burdekin wrote feminist... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• This Rough Magic (1964) by Mary Stewart

  

  Book review by Sylvia D: I’m almost certain I read Mary Stewart novels when I was in my teens but cannot now remember any specific titles or plots. Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Madam, Will You Talk (1955) by Mary Stewart

  Book Review by George S: Madam, Will You Talk (1955) was Mary Stewart’s first published novel, and it is obviously the work of someone with a gift for... Read more

  Posted on 10 April 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree (1961) – Another Review

  Book review by Alice C: A strange, unexpected tale. Unexpected in that I’d never read any Mary Stewart before and I’d expected a rural love story (boring) but... Read more

  Posted on 01 April 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Ivy Tree (1961) by Mary Stewart

  

  Book review by Frances S: The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart was first published in 1961, slightly later than the usual Reading 1900-1950 period but otherwise well... Read more

  Posted on 31 March 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart (1956)

  Book review by Mary P: This was Mary Stewart’s second novel. It is written in the first person, so throughout we have the viewpoint of Gianetta. She is a... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Mary Stewart – My Brother Michael (1959)

  Book review by Jane Varley: ‘The contemporary thriller at its very best’, wrote the Guardian. ‘The result of my own visits to Greece and the impact of that... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Fortune (1917) by Douglas Goldring

  This month the reading group looked at books featuring war resisters and the war-sceptical. I read The Fortune by Douglas Goldring, a novel which could not... Read more

  Posted on 23 March 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Bulpington of Blup (1932) by H.G. Wells

  

  Book Review by George S: 1932 is a long time after H.G. Wells’s brilliant scientific fables of the 1890s, and over the intervening period he had developed into ... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The History of Mr Polly (1910) by H G Wells

  

  John Mills as Mr Polly in the 1949 film of the book. Book Review by Sylvia D: The last time the Reading Group considered books by H G Wells, I read Ann... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Chain of Witnesses: The Cases of Miss Phipps (2014) – Phyllis Bentley

  

  Review by George S: As well as her historical novels set in Yorkshire, Phyllis Bentley had a less well-known sideline writing detective stories. Read more

  Posted on 16 January 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE