Falling in Love with Autumn, Again!
John Keats composed ‘To Autumn‘ on September 19th 1819, after a walk near Winchester one evening. In a letter to his friend John Hamilton Reynolds written a couple of days later, he described the impression the scene had made on him: “How beautiful the season is now – How fine the air.”
🍂🍁🍂🍁
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease…
🍂🍁🍂🍁
Tragically, this meditation on the transience of life was his last major work before he died at just 25. It’s still one of the most iconic poems ever written about the season.
Review: Love Transcends in The Last Hours in Paris
‘To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.’
Victor HugoAround 200,000 children were born between 1941 and 1945 as a result of liaisons between French women and occupying German troops.
This phenomenon is the starting point for Ruth Druart’s second novel – The Last Hours In Paris, set during the Nazi occupation of France. German translator Sebastian falls in love with Élise, a young Parisian woman who has been trying to help Jewish orphans escape deportation. Here Druart asks questions not often considered in WW2 literature. How far were the occupying Germans victims themselves? What were their attitudes towards the locals? And what was the fate of the women who ‘liaised’ with them?
REVIEW: A Portrait of the Witch – Taschen’s New Art History of Witchcraft
Witches’ Sabbath – Francisco Goya To most people, the word ‘witch’ conjures images of old crones with pointy hats flying into the moonlight on broomsticks. Outsiders in league with malevolent forces, they cast spells on those who wrong them. Our current perceptions of witches and witchcraft are still largely shaped by the propaganda cooked up by King James I in the 1590s, memorialised by Shakespeare in the witches of Macbeth.
With ‘Witchcraft,’ a new coffee table tome published by Taschen, co-editors Jessica Hundley and Pam Grossman have gone a long way towards changing this perception. From the origins of the word ‘witch’ to the practices of witches today, they chart the history of witchcraft across the world through over 400 artworks, as well as essays and interviews with historians, artists and modern practitioners.
Review: Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson
Published earlier this month, Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson has been universally praised. In this debut novel we follow a day in the life of a young woman who works in a mundane office job. We’re in her head from the moment she wakes up, to the moment she drops off to sleep.
She’s extremely self-conscious, suffering ever-present anxiety and impulses to self-harm, troubled by a recent trauma. The memories often break through, but of course she hasn’t the time (or possibly the inclination) to fully process the experience. She is assaulted by constant distractions – email, WhatsApp, Twitter and colleagues making small talk, but those intrusive, traumatic thoughts are always there under the surface.
Review: While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart
A young woman’s future is torn away in a heartbeat. Herded on to a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope.
Author Ruth Druart moved to Paris in 1993. While walking around the city when she first moved there, she was moved by the plaques and monuments to those killed during World War II. Outside a school in Le Marais, she noticed a simple plaque telling of the 260 pupils who were detained by the Nazis during the war. This inspired her to learn more about the German occupation of France.
Dash & Lily is a Bookworm’s Dream Show
Imagine you’re in New York, and it’s Christmas. You’re in your favourite book store, and there, is a red notebook. Do you dare…?
That’s the premise of this uber-festive teen rom-com. It might seem like another cheesy Netflix show (ie Emily in Paris) but it’s a bookworm’s dream – featuring New York’s literary landmarks, beautiful book stores, libraries and a cast of adorable characters who love books too.
🎄It’s based on a book – Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares🎄
Antkind: Charlie Kaufman Kills the Inner Critic
Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has described his debut novel Antkind as his ‘big book of jokes’, but of course it’s much more than that.
Primarily it seems to be a device for him to torture a film critic of his own making – named B. Rosenberger Rosenberg. This irredeemable character has all the cliché character flaws you might expect in a film critic – he’s pompous, self-aggrandising, and almost completely lacking any self-awareness.
Review: The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak is a prolific and internationally renowned British-Turkish author. Her most recent novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, was nominated for the 2019 Booker Prize.
Shifting between the present day and 13th century Konya, The Forty Rules of Love explores the relationship between the wandering Sufi mystic Shams of Tabriz and the now more widely known Persian poet Rumi. After his death, Rumi’s followers founded the Mevlevi Sufi Order, also known as the ‘whirling dervishes’.
In this novel, Shafak chronicles Rumi’s life-changing transformation into a mystic and poet through his close relationship with Shams. This is framed by the eponymous ‘Forty Rules’ created by Shams – profound ruminations on the nature of life, love and our connection to God. One such rule is particularly relevant to the nature of their relationship: “Eventually it is best to find a person, the person who will be your mirror. Remember, only in another person’s heart can you truly see yourself and the presence of God within you.”
To make this story more relatable to our everyday lives, Shafak brings us back to the present day through the character of Ella, a dissatisfied housewife looking for deeper meaning in life and love. For me, this element was unnecessary as I found myself completely transported by the history and mysticism explored in the main story.For anyone interested in finding out more about Rumi and Sufism, I would recommend this as a good starting point.
“You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church. But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look for him: in the heart of a true lover.”
Review: Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
As it says on the cover, this book truly is a masterpiece. Birds Without Wings is an incredibly insightful and well researched piece of wartime history, shining a light on the customs and daily life of people in Greece and Turkey during the early twentieth century. De Bernières captures the foibles and the beauty of the human condition from birth to life and in death. Some of the passages were so moving they brought me to tears. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the great Turkish leader Ataturk, this period of history and the culture of Greece and Turkey during this time. Even if you have no knowledge of this time or region, it will resonate with anyone simply interested in what it means to be human.