The Still Point by Amy Sackville
Literature │ The Perfect FitThe Still Point by Amy Sackville (published in Avrupa newspaper) The Still Point is Sackville’s debut novel after leaving her job working as an editor with an illustrated books publisher to pursue her love of literature and ended up doing an MA in creative writing at Goldsmiths. This is a story which stretches and rests over a chasm of time, a North Pole expedition led by Edward Mackley on one end and his great- great niece, Julia in Suffolk at the other. Julia is desperately trying to organise her family’s history into some form of cohesion
A Widows Story by Joyce Carol Oates
Literature │ “Your Life together was purely chance.” A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol OatesBy Zehra Cranmer “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” These are the words of C.S.Lewis in A Greif Observed, published in 1961 under a pseudonym. Lewis wrote this after his wife died in order to make sense of his grief; of the thoughts that passed through his mind and the feelings that shocked him. Oates’s memoir is a portrait of a marriage and the portrayal of grief; essentially it is what she names her last chapter, “The Widow’s Handbook.” Joyce Carol
Freedom
Literature │ What’s in a name? Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) I don’t usually cave in to pressure when it comes to “must reads,” but it was impossible to turn anywhere without the title Freedom and Franzen being flashed. He was in every paper, every board and so forth, so I thought that I ought to find out what all the fuss was about, and I did. It’s not a small book, but I’ve read larger and greater ones. Freedom is essentially a story focused on the marriage of Walter and Patty Berglund; their responsibilities to one
The Birds & Other Stories BY DAPHNE DU MAURIER
Literature │Hold On Tight The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier (Published in “Avrupa”) Hitchcock was Daphne du Maurier’s number one fan, he must have been seeing as he turned her short story “The Birds” and Rebecca into successful films, many of her other films have been adapted for the screen, including Don’t Look Now and Jamaica Inn. One has to ask, what is it about Daphne’s writing that makes directors yearn to take the story and bring it to life. It must be the way that she is capable of making one agitated in their own skin,
Writers’ Room
Writers’ Room: Zehra Mustafa (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) What does it mean to me a writer? To be the person who sits for many hours in a trusty chair, at an oak table pressed up against a wall or looking out on a busy street, or a canopy of trees, hoping that their blood, sweat and hours of solitude may be reduced to those pages that we so love to read. Interest has always been placed on the way in which an artist or writer lives, the Guardian back in 2007 did a long series on the Writers’ room which
A Room With a View
Literature │Life in a Multitude of Landscapes A Room with a View by E.M. Forster By Zehra Mustafa (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) Lucy Honeychurch is a young woman; vulnerable, delicate, strong and obstinate all at once, encompassing strong traits of an Austenesque character. Her mother has taught her all that she ought to know about society; her place within it as a young woman, as a wife and most importantly, an awareness of how one is in accordance to men. Lucy desires to be equal with men but finds herself pulled back by her initial beliefs as Cecil believes himself
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Literature │ The Ghosts of London84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff “London, happily, is becoming full of great men’s houses, bought for the nation and preserved entire with the chairs they sat on and the cups they drank from, their umbrellas and their chests of drawers…it is no frivolous curiosity that sends us to Dickens house and Johnson’s house and Carlyle’s house and Keats’s house. We know from their houses- it would seem to be a fact that writers stamp themselves upon their possessions more indelibly than other people.” The London Scene: “Great Men’s Houses” by Virginia Woolf. What
Like Bees to Honey by Caroline Smailes
Literature │Letting Go Like Bees to Honey by Caroline Smailes (published in “avrupa” newspaper) What is a home? And where is it? For some, home is where one grew up, from where their blood runs, for others it is something they carry in their hearts, a place where they’re loved one resides. The concept of home in Smailes’ Like Bees to Honey is paramount to the novel’s protagonist, Nina, in laying her past to which belongs to Malta, to rest and learn how to move on. This is a tale of strength; what it means to have a family, how
Cyprus- Part Two
Cyprus│ Freedom to LearnPart Two (published in “Avrupa” newspaper) From a young age, I recall my father telling my sister & I, all my friends and their parents and any other human that we made contact with, that all you had to do was kick your foot in the sand and you would unearth a piece of pottery. He was right. The island’s rich history awaits man on all levels, weather it is in glass case holding Ajax’s horse, or the Castle walls of Famagusta designed by Leonardo da Vinci where Othello’s tower can be found, wherever one looked, history
Cyprus – PART ONE
Cyprus│ Land: ReturningPart One (published in ‘Avrupa’ newspaper) Love hath an island,And I would be there;Love hath an IslandAnd nurtureth thereFor men the Delights The beguilers of careCyprus, Love’s island;And I would be thereAt Paphos she dwelleth,And I would be there.At Paphos she dwelleth,And wealth cometh there.Afloat with the kissesThat Ocean doth bearFrom the hundred streams Like a shower unfurledOf the Rainless RiverBorn out of the world;There are the hil-sidesOn earth most fair,Pierian hill-sides,And melody there,The voice of the Nine,Is borne on the airOver the hill-sides,For Heaven is thereWith spirits divineAnd shining of fire;And there are the Graces,And there is
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