Covering the period 1830 to 1901, this is a treasure chest. It not only contains a huge sampling of both prose and poetry, but places them into an historical context.
The introduction to the book gives the reader a broad sweep of what was going on in those seventy odd years (such as the decline of Victorian values, industrialisation, suffrage), and several mini essays throughout provide introductions to the writers and their concerns.
The samples work well: a section from Hard Times convinced me to read the full novel, and I discovered a wonderful essay by George Eliot. Highly recommended.
I am currently experimenting with writing articles of exactly 100 words in length. This is one of them.
As indicated by the title, the first thing to know about this anthology is that it comprises both poetry and prose, rather than one or the other. Many of the pieces are quite unusual...
It's rather disconcerting when one considers that buildings like The Shard are essentially held together by nuts, bolts and washers.
Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...
This book may be thirty years old, but its advice is still pertinent. If you want to have a blitz or crackdown against, or shake-up of, bad writing (all examples of 'tabloidese'), then this is the book for you.
Introducing and applying Conway's Law, Gresham's Law and the sunken cost fallacy to the practice of writing.
A fascinating glimpse into the mind and development of a true virtuoso.
We visited the William Morris Gallery at the weekend, and Chaucer’s Complete Works was one of the books Wm Morris published.
The art of making paper was kept secret for hundreds of years.
I’ve been sent the following books by publishers, and will review them in due course. Here is some information about them.
The typical school writing assignment involves working in a way that no real writer does.