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David Stuart Davies looks at the second published novel of Charlotte Brontë Shirley is one of the lesser-known works of Charlotte Brontë (1816 -55), overshadowed somewhat by her blockbuster Jane Eyre, which is a shame because it is a fine novel with an engrossing narrative. Hurt by certain the criticisms of Jane Eye as being… Read More

‘Try a Little Tenderness’: as Lady Chatterley’s Lover comes to Netflix, Sally Minogue looks at both novel and adaptation. I always labour at the same thing, to make the sex relation valid and precious, instead of shameful. And this novel is the furthest I’ve gone. To me it is beautiful and tender and frail as… Read More

Holding fast with Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights: Stefania Ciocia embraces the power of Nature and of artistic adventures. I remember the first time I read Wuthering Heights. I remember it for all the wrong reasons. I was still in high-school, and the long summer holidays afforded me ample time to read. With classes over from… Read More

Although also an artist and composer, Edward Lear is deservedly best-known for his nonsense in all its many forms: songs, stories, poems, drawings, recipes, alphabets and limericks, a form which he popularized. Described by Lear as simply ‘innocent mirth’, his Complete Nonsense is not only an experience in the absurd, but reveals much about children’s… Read More

Steve Carver discovers the supernatural fiction of Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts is the house that Edith Wharton built. She designed it as an elegant retreat from New York society in which she could write and her mentally ill husband, Teddy, could hopefully find some peace. The couple lived within its white… Read More

David Stuart Davies looks at festive moments in literature. It is perhaps not surprising that many writers have included a Christmas scene or passage in their novels. It is a time of year when passions are roused and the potential for great comedy or chilling melodrama is rife. Christmas is like an isolated moment in… Read More

When I am preparing a blog, I often dwell on the novel or poetry I am writing about, and sometimes the author, for a few days or even weeks beforehand, so that other experiences often chime with that inner conversation. So it has been with Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy’s great tragic novel with ‘A… Read More

The story of The Railway Children is one that has resonated with readers for over a century. Now, beloved children’s author Jacqueline Wilson has put her own twist on E. Nesbit’s tale, modernising the narrative for a whole new audience of young readers. The Primrose Railway Children, her own title, was released in paperback earlier… Read More

Emily, a film loosely based on Emily Brontë’s life, has hit the screens. Sally Minogue finds herself at odds with the rave reviews. As soon as I had seen the film Emily, I knew what the first sentence of this blog was going to be: ‘Emily is pure codswallop’. But me no buts. But …… Read More