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Sydney Morning Herald
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This biography does fullest justice to the maddest stories imaginable
BIOGRAPHY Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark Frances WilsonBloomsbury, $44.99 It's extraordinary the magnetism of Muriel Spark and the extent to which her work has such an extraordinary power of definition, even when it seems in its ravishing way minor and whole aspects of her life seem eccentric to the point of derangement. But this is the woman to whom the New Yorker devoted an entire issue which contained the text of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, subsequently made into a film starring Dame Maggie Smith and widely regarded as the greatest novella of the mid-20th century. Frances Wilson has written about Thomas De Quincey and D.H. Lawrence and the Titanic. Now she has written about Spark with a brilliant recreative justice to the brilliant shot of lightning that illuminates everything Spark did, but also the formal brilliance of the work and the way it remained – in ways that are at once wacko and regally impressive – the imprint of a personality that was both magnificent and alarming. Think of the titles of those books: The Girls of Slender Means, A Far Cry from Kensington, Loitering with Intent and Memento Mori. Wilson, who has a captivating analytical mind and an exceptional narrative power that goes along with it, tells the stories of how Spark ran the Poetry Society and the weird chaps (sometimes military gents) she had to fight again and again to gain control. If you're going to read one work of criticism or critical biography this year read her: she's some kind of genius. And she does the fullest justice to the maddest stories imaginable. At one point in the 1950s, Spark is not only sleeping with a fellow called Stanford, she's sharing a journal with him – one that juxtaposes her cut-glass intensities with his smokey bombast. Then she becomes religious, embracing first Anglo then Roman Catholicism, and she is insistent that if they're to keep up the sex he had better take on God. He won't, but Spark (who has written a book about the Book of Job, The Only Question) does with great tolling bells on, while Stanford is possessive about her work. Together, they edit Cardinal Newman's wonderful sermons. Meanwhile, Spark, who is heavily into dexedrine – and who is at work on a life of Mary Shelley – gets it into her head that she is receiving secret coded messages from T.S. Eliot (who has just written The Confidential Clerk and was impressed by her review). Spark's work goes from strength to strength even where it contains worlds within worlds as well as re-arranging the traditional hierarchies of leading men. There are devils and then there is Spark's strange double act with Evelyn Waugh's weird breakdown work The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, which is full of parallel derangements to her own but which he celebrates with a generous blurb. It's also the case that Graham Greene, who admired that uncanny panoramic coldness in Spark's work and her command of the drama of introspection and self-annihilation, kept her alive with monthly cheques.
The Age
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
This biography does fullest justice to the maddest stories imaginable
BIOGRAPHY Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark Frances WilsonBloomsbury, $44.99 It's extraordinary the magnetism of Muriel Spark and the extent to which her work has such an extraordinary power of definition, even when it seems in its ravishing way minor and whole aspects of her life seem eccentric to the point of derangement. But this is the woman to whom the New Yorker devoted an entire issue which contained the text of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, subsequently made into a film starring Dame Maggie Smith and widely regarded as the greatest novella of the mid-20th century. Frances Wilson has written about Thomas De Quincey and D.H. Lawrence and the Titanic. Now she has written about Spark with a brilliant recreative justice to the brilliant shot of lightning that illuminates everything Spark did, but also the formal brilliance of the work and the way it remained – in ways that are at once wacko and regally impressive – the imprint of a personality that was both magnificent and alarming. Think of the titles of those books: The Girls of Slender Means, A Far Cry from Kensington, Loitering with Intent and Memento Mori. Wilson, who has a captivating analytical mind and an exceptional narrative power that goes along with it, tells the stories of how Spark ran the Poetry Society and the weird chaps (sometimes military gents) she had to fight again and again to gain control. If you're going to read one work of criticism or critical biography this year read her: she's some kind of genius. And she does the fullest justice to the maddest stories imaginable. At one point in the 1950s, Spark is not only sleeping with a fellow called Stanford, she's sharing a journal with him – one that juxtaposes her cut-glass intensities with his smokey bombast. Then she becomes religious, embracing first Anglo then Roman Catholicism, and she is insistent that if they're to keep up the sex he had better take on God. He won't, but Spark (who has written a book about the Book of Job, The Only Question) does with great tolling bells on, while Stanford is possessive about her work. Together, they edit Cardinal Newman's wonderful sermons. Meanwhile, Spark, who is heavily into dexedrine – and who is at work on a life of Mary Shelley – gets it into her head that she is receiving secret coded messages from T.S. Eliot (who has just written The Confidential Clerk and was impressed by her review). Spark's work goes from strength to strength even where it contains worlds within worlds as well as re-arranging the traditional hierarchies of leading men. There are devils and then there is Spark's strange double act with Evelyn Waugh's weird breakdown work The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, which is full of parallel derangements to her own but which he celebrates with a generous blurb. It's also the case that Graham Greene, who admired that uncanny panoramic coldness in Spark's work and her command of the drama of introspection and self-annihilation, kept her alive with monthly cheques.
Hindustan Times
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Spice of life: Lord Wavell, a viceroy with the heart of a poet
For many in India, Lord Wavell shall be remembered as one of the last long-serving viceroys, having served at the helm from 1943-47 and as a man who held onto his colonial mindset till the very end, alienating not only Indian politicians but also his masters sitting in London. It would be apt to remember Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell this May, as the month brought him both his birth (May 5, 1883) as well as his death (May 24, 1950). Lord Wavell might not have been a success in the political office of viceroy but he was a great military man and what may surprise many, an even more successful writer and poet, having authored six books. Lord Wavell had a passion for poetry since childhood. He could memorise long poems with ease. He was often showed off by his parents to relatives and friends to recite reams of poetry. Apart from fighting the Boer War, two World Wars, attaining the highest rank of Field Marshal, earning an earldom and serving as viceroy of India, he was known to devote a lot of time to his duties as president of the Poetry Society, the Royal Society of Literature, the Kipling Society and Browning Society. His military aide, Peter Fleming (travel writer and brother of Ian Fleming, the man who created the character of James Bond), once asked him to compile his favourite poems for publishing. Initially hesitant, Lord Wavell took on the task and compiled the volume of 255 poems almost totally from memory. The result was Other Men's Flowers, published in 1944. Priced at 10 shillings and six pence, the book sold out immediately and remains in print even Times commended his book and welcomed him as 'the latest recruit to the ranks of anthologists'. To mend fences with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was incarcerated in Ahmednagar Fort, he sent an inscribed copy of his book along with a personal letter. Pandit Nehru was delighted and described the book as 'a good one'. He dedicated this book to his son, who shared his love for poetry. Unfortunately, the poetry-loving son died a brave soldier battling the Mau Mau in Kenya after having lost his left arm in the Second World War. After four years of war when he visited the Madonna of the Cherries, he wrote a sonnet to all things beautiful that help us forget the dreariness of war. 'For all the loveliness, the warmth, that light, / Blessed Madonna, I go back to fight,' wrote Lord Wavell as the last lines of his sonnet (Page510, Other Men's Flowers), emphasising the fact that sometimes war has to be fought to safeguard the beautiful things in life. gurnoorgrewal572@ The writer is a Chandigarh-based freelance contributor.
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Impressive, ingenious and affecting' poem about missing an absent son wins National Poetry Competition
A poem inspired by the writer's experience missing her son after he moved from the UK to Australia has won this year's £5,000 National Poetry Competition. Fiona Larkin's poem, Absence has a grammar, was picked from nearly 22,000 entries. 'It feels a bit like a lottery win, because the odds are so high,' said Larkin. When she got the call with the news, she felt both a 'sense of disbelief' and 'weirdly buoyant – that floating sense of something happening'. After her son moved to Brisbane, Larkin had been 'really taken aback' by how much she missed him. 'I rarely write about my children, I think they've maybe got one poem each now,' said Larkin. Her son hadn't read the poem until Larkin found out she'd won the competition. 'He's delighted for me. I reckon he's probably a little bit embarrassed as well.' The poem incorporates the Finnish language, which Larkin had begun reading about before going to Helsinki last summer, around the time that her son moved. Her poem plays with the abessive case, which is used to express absence and involves adding the suffix -tta or -ttä on to nouns. 'I'm really interested in the way knowledge of other languages shines a light on English,' she said. Larkin's debut collection, Rope of Sand, was published in 2023. She has also published two pamphlets, Vital Capacity and A Dovetail of Breath. Winning the competition 'will give me more confidence with my writing going forward in terms of experimenting and trying out new things'. She is working on a second collection. All the poems were read anonymously by a judging panel comprising Romalyn Ante, John McAuliffe and Stephen Sexton, who described the winning poem as 'very impressive, ingenious and affecting'. Matt Barnard was named as the runner-up, winning £2,000, while third place went to Sorrel Briggs, who receives £1,000. The top three poems will be published in the spring 2025 issue of the Poetry Society's journal, The Poetry Review. Seven commended poets, winning £500 each, are Yong-Yu Huang, Lee Knapper, Hannah Perrin King, Lesley Sharpe, Chris Beckett, Kit Buchan and Andrew Dennison. Past winners of the competition include Carol Ann Duffy, Sinéad Morrissey, James Berry and Tony Harrison. Last year, Imogen Wade won the award for a poem inspired by her experience being mugged in New York. The competition will next open in June. I am learning to use the abessive case as if I were Finnish, to indicate that what I miss is so much a part of me that its loss is structural. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The suffix -tta turns a word into a shadow of itself. Emptied of substance, light blows through it. I think of moonshine, of a bottle of Koskenkorva, the Finns' national liquor, renamed Koskenkorvattawhen there's none I howl. Itkin syyttä means 'I cried without reason,' but when a child is away there is reason enough. Tonight itkin syyttä. If I join -tta to son it impels me to write this – not a sonata, nor sonnet, but still, of course, a little song of longing. With thanks to Diego Marani for Koskenkorvatta.
