02 Wednesday Jan 2013
Posted in Marilyn Monroe, Music
Tags
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Hal Schaefer, Irving Berlin, Jazz, Joe DiMaggio, Lionel Newman, Louella Parsons, Marilyn Monroe, Piano, River of No Return, There's No Business Like Show Business, Wrong Door Raid
My tribute to Hal Schaefer, the jazz pianist who died recently. This article can also be read at Immortal Marilyn. Continue reading
20 Thursday Dec 2012
Posted in Art and Photography, Books, Fiction, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Witchcraft
Tags
A Year in Books, Adam Braver, Christine Middleton, Dark Places, Elif Shafak, Ferragamo, Gil Adamson, Gillian Flynn, Honour, Kate Grenville, Lancashire Witches, Livi Michael, Malkin Child, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: Private And Undisclosed, Michelle Morgan, Misfit, Pendle Witches, Sarah Thornhill, Sofka Zinovieff, Stefania Ricci, The House on Paradise Street, The Outlander, The Witch & Her Soul
My ten favourite reads of 2012, including new fiction; books commemorating the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, and the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials; and some previously published books that I’ve just caught up with.
I had never read Kate Grenville’s work before, but Sarah Thornhill (and its predecessor, The Secret River) really evokes the stark beauty of the outback, contrasted with the tumult of the early settlers. Continue reading
18 Tuesday Dec 2012
Donna Tartt, author of The Secret History and The Little Friend, is one of the most talented (and elusive) novelists of our time. As she prepares to celebrate her birthday on December 23rd, read my tribute over at For Books’ Sake.
Related Posts
28 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted in History, Radio, Witchcraft
Tags
Aquilon, BBC, Carol Ann Duffy, Diane Purkiss, Documentary, Jeanette Winterson, Lancashire Witches, Pendle Witches, Radio 4, Robert Poole, The Curse of Pendle
Installation on Pendle Hill: photo by Brett Dixon/BBC, 2012.
The Curse of Pendle is a 30-minute documentary, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on November 23rd, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Lancashire Witch Trials. It is presented by the novelist Jeanette Winterson, who grew up in Accrington, within view of Pendle Hill.
‘We all knew the stories of Chattox and Demdike – names you’d never forget,’ Winterson recalls. ‘Were they witches? Did they still haunt the hill? It scared us kids to death.’ Continue reading
21 Wednesday Nov 2012
Posted in Books, History, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on The 1937 Woolworth’s Sit-Down
Tags
Dana Frank, For Books' Sake, Haymarket Books, Labour History, Occupy Wall Street, Strke, The 1937 Woolworth's Sit-Down
The 1937 Woolworth’s Sit-Down: Women Strikers Occupy Chain Store, Win Big, a new pamphlet by Dana Frank, takes a fresh, feminist look at American labour history, with lessons for today’s Occupy movement. You can read my review at For Books’ Sake.
Tara Hanks 
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