Portrait of a writer
Iris Origo (1902-88) was an English writer who grew up in Italy and married an Italian. Together they bought and...
Shorter but longer
This pithy summary of the difference between prose and poetry is as much as Orlando gleans from the convoluted accounts...
Key Penmanship Indicators (KPIs) VI
This is a description by Anthony Burgess of the reader's reaction to Mervyn Peake's writing in the intricately imaginative Gormenghast...
Nonsense daubers
Folly, speaking from her light-hearted pulpit, lays into another bunch of self-serious fools, those who write books, or as she...
Saying what you think and writing how you want
This, in particular the second part, resonated with me. In an age where Search Engine Optimization sometimes seems to want...
Of damp and prolixity
Orlando reveals his bias towards the 18th (or against the 19th) century by noting the turn of the century as...
Stories as generosity
An expansive view of stories from Turkestan, as if they embody the sweeping spaces of the steppe, and the freedom...
A poet’s prayer
In fact, a prayer for any writer. Having just read John Drury's marvelous appreciation of George Herbert's life and his...
Manuscripts as moments in time
I have long felt this sense of time’s encapsulation in manuscripts, and I like this example of a manuscript being...
Writing to kick up your heels
Having just re-read Virginia Woolf's Orlando after a third-of-a-century hiatus, I revelled in the liveliness and playfulness of both the...
Power implied
Something whistlingly clean about this; good writing hitting its target with speed and precision, and a latent force behind every...
China through Chinese literature
Glad to highlight a new audiobook company dedicated to bringing modern Chinese fiction to a wider audience through new and...
© Beatrice Otto 2020 - design & content unless otherwise stated - all rights reserved