The day is windy and blustery with rain lashing the windows. A typical day in Cambridge, England. The ideal day for a cup of tea and a good book, sitting inside a warm house. A treat for the day was a talk by Bernardine Evaristo as part of the Virtual literary festival’s Big Book Weekend. Her talk is still available for free on their website. I would highly recommend the other talks by Michael Morpurgo and Neil Gaiman as well. The three authors were approachable and generous.
Bernardine spoke about inclusive literature and representation for black British voices in her writing. Another point that I loved was finding out that she started in poetry and theatre before turning to writing novels. This definitely impacts her novel, Girl, Woman, Other. It has a distinct poetical punctuation and syntax in the writing. At first, this made the narrative seem broken, but it soon establishes a refreshing presence in the mind. The novel deals with very difficult topics like gang rape and domestic violence and at a point I almost gave up on the book, but I am glad I carried on until the brilliant ending.
Another book that deals with difficult topics, like suicide and bigamy, is Half-broke horses. I am halfway through the book for my family bookclub and the struggles of the author are even more powerful as they are based on the true stories of the author’s grandmother. I would highly recommend the book. It is written in a concise style, driven forward by the narrative.
I will finish with a few flowers pictures taken yesterday. Enjoy!
Living with my black dog 