Andrew O’Hagan's Selections
I find myself deeply moved by Namanlagh, this first poetry collection after ten years by the renowned Tom Paulin. This exquisitely crafted reflection about illness & recovery, partnership & authorship, conflict and historical neglect, this work is a true masterpiece. There are graceful references toward Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney, while many of the poems are filled with the feeling of mature artistry & unfinished business.
Autobiographies by politicians are usually terrible, frequently screeds of self-justification & retaliation, but Nicola Sturgeon’s Frankly redefines the rules. She is a proper writer, for a start, who knows how to explore uncertainty, ambivalence, remorse, love & kindness, adaptability, along with numerous aspects that actually define humanity. I eagerly anticipate what she writes next.
I came across a new writer – new to me, yet cherished by Norwegians for years. He is the late Dag Solstad and I consumed his book Shyness and Dignity in two sittings. It narrates the story about an English instructor of 25 years’ standing that suddenly loses his head while trying to handle a broken umbrella. He experiences a breakdown and the novel charts it with insightful, straightforward manner, creating something beautiful.
I want to offer additional freshly baked goods for my companions. Soon, I’m going to host a brunch gathering at a kitchen table laden with homemade croissants, potato bread, artisan loaves & mad cakes. I’m hoping to receive guidance in this quest by Helen Goh’s Baking and the Meaning of Life.
Penny's Choice
Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions by Akshat Rathi was published last year. Every section details an achievement within the economic shift away from oil-dependent systems toward sustainable power and climate solutions, highlighting individuals who have made a huge difference. There is abundant detail and information I was unaware of previously, even with my intensive reading around this topic.
Although certain topics are contentious, such as CO2 sequestration – plus Bill Gates turned out to be less of a climate solutions man as portrayed within the text, with his oil industry holdings – on the whole, the developments described provide great optimism. They demonstrate that certain governments have worked alongside businesses , are now moving toward the right direction, as innovative tools advance apace. The technical details are superb, too. I was unaware how solar panels functioned, for example.
An Acclaimed Writer's Top Reads
Elaine Kraf’s Find Him! is being reissued in November, making it the perfect time to explore it, or reread her luminous, patterned The Princess of 72nd Street.
Down Below by Leonora Carrington is a classic. It’s not the exact blueprint of my newest book, Will There Ever Be Another You, yet I remember perusing it outdoors during the pandemic and realizing: here is exactly what’s occurring to me. Moreover, it contains the nearest depiction one might find to a diagram of God’s perineum.
Another major event – Airless Spaces by Shulamith Firestone was originally published over two decades ago, ten years after the author’s schizophrenia diagnosis and retreat from public life. She stood as an influential leader, even then somewhat remote to feminists of my generation, however these vignettes, which deal with her institutional stays, seem current, close, rebellious.
Andrew's Insight
Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter offers an understated and calm layered read. It’s set during the harsh cold of 1962-63 and follows the experiences of two couples who live opposite each other in the countryside in the West Country. Closed in in their surroundings, the protagonists – Eric and Irene, Rita & Bill – grapple with their history & present, heading towards a dissolution. It is a beautifully written novel that again marks out Miller among Britain’s finest writers on human nature.
