Book of the Week (or not): How to Stop Time

Dr Hudson

Trust me. My opinion is impartial, so you can. That’s not to say, of course, that I don’t have partiality, as in things that are to my taste. I’m partial to books about Shakespeare, for instance, and to narratives that engage me emotionally. But that kind of partiality is not that same as being actually biased. And when we read book reviews, especially those in the national press, it is difficult to find an impartial reviewer.

Recently I read How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. I chose to read it because I read a good review, which told me it featured Shakespeare and was touching, in The Guardian. I often find myself sharing the opinions of journalists who write for that newspaper. However, what I forgot is that book reviews tend not to be written by professional journalists but by other authors, and it’s not always clear whether or not they know personally the author whose work they review.

Reading Queer: Talking Queer

For our final post, we're featuring Mr Anthony's introduction to the devised drama piece, Talking Queer, which is being staged this week.

For a black girl walking white streets, home may be the one destination where the minority becomes the majority; for a Muslim boy in a Christian community, his family may prove a fortress from an intolerant society; for a young woman exposed to misogyny, her family tree may provide women with whom she may seek solace.

Reading Queer: Christopher Isherwood

Mr Gardner

'Waking up begins with saying am and now. That which has awoken then lies for a while staring up at the ceiling and down into itself until it has recognized I, and therefrom deduced I am, I am now. Here comes next, and is at least negatively reassuring; because here, this morning, is where it has expected to find itself: what's called at home.

But now isn't simply now. Now is also a cold reminder: one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year. Every now is labeled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until--later or sooner-- perhaps--no, not perhaps--quite certainly: it will come.

Reading Queer: Alison Bechdel

Mr Kemp

Alison Bechdel’s rather parlous day job from 1983-2008 was the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, a long running series about a large cast of (predominantly gay) women living in the US.

It’s been hailed as groundbreaking for its frank and witty presentations of lesbian lifestyles, and the Omnibus is on my Christmas list. It’s also got, for my money, one of the best titles of any literary work I’ve ever heard.

Reading Queer: Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander

Blazoning Forth the Loves of Men 
Mr Kemp

'They who love not tobacco and boys are fools.' So runs the ‘snappiest’ of the Elizabethan spy Richard Baines’s charges against Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe in the infamous ‘Baines Note’.

Reading Queer: Walker Library Exhibition

Throughout the Thinking Queer festival, the library is running a display of books by gay authors, including:

Walt Whitman 
Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist, and among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.

Reading Queer: The Spin

The Spin 
Mr Anthony

Reading Queer: Terence Rattigan

Dr Hudson

Eminent theatre director, Sir Trevor Nunn, writes that Terence Rattigan was, during the middle years of the 20th century, ‘the most famous and successful, daring and original English playwright of the age’ alongside Noël Coward.

From 1936, when his light comedy, French Without Tears, became the biggest theatrical hit of the decade, to his death in 1977, there were few years in which a play by Rattigan was not playing in the West End.

Reading Queer: Maurice by E M Forster

An abridged extract from John Venning's lecture on E M Forster, as part of the 'Queer Art Lectures' programme.

Forster had not wished his sexuality to be revealed in his lifetime. It was only in 2008, however, that restricted material, including his ‘Locked Diary’ were made available to scholars by King’s College who inherited his literary estate. We all owe a great debt to Professor Wendy Moffatt who published a new biography of Forster in 2010, written using this new material. As Christopher Isherwood said after he received a parcel of unpublished writings after Forster’s death: ‘Unless you start with the fact that he was homosexual, nothing’s any good at all.’

Reading Queer: Sarah Waters

For the next couple of weeks, as part of the school's Thinking Queer season, the book blog will be running posts focussing on LGBT books and writers. Today, Miss McLaren recommends the novels of Sarah Waters.