I’ve written before about rivalry between women – a common theme in literature – in Rosamond Lehmann’s 1953 novel The Echoing Grove and Zoe Heller’s 2003 novel Notes on a Scandal. Female rivalry also appears in Elizabeth Day’s psychological thriller Magpie, entwining with the theme of infertility and the devastating emotional and psychological impact it can have on those affected. Published in 2021 Magpie is a gripping read with a clever, unexpected twist a third of the way through which forces the reader to reappraise what they have read so far. Continue reading “Culinary competitiveness”
Author: rebecca.selman@btinternet.com
Food and the pastoral
In 2015 James Rebank’s The Shepherd’s Life was published to great acclaim. The book describes the way of life of shepherds in the Lake District, as practised by Rebanks himself, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Continue reading “Food and the pastoral”
A Christmas Tale
Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These might be a slip of a book – it is only 110 pages long – but it packs a mighty punch. Continue reading “A Christmas Tale”
Food and paranoia
In Virginia Feito’s debut novel Mrs March, a food establishment – the eponymous protagonist’s ‘favorite patisserie – a lovely little place with a red awning and a whitewashed bench in front’ – is the site of a humiliating episode that precipitates a nightmareish journey into paranoia. Continue reading “Food and paranoia”