Literary Life

Although I’m a voracious reader I tend not to be interested in classical works. If it is published before the start of the twentieth century I’m not very interested. Among the more recent authors I have enjoyed works by Kingsley Amis. I’m not so keen on those of his son Martin Amis. This interest first arose when I had just started at college and I was desperate for something to read. The library at a college of technology didn’t offer much choice. “Lucky Jim” the first Amis book was one. It is actually quite different from his later work tending towards the farcical. I prefer the later works.

Frances decided to study English at A level. This was despite my intentions. I had made myself notorious at her school because when she won praise from her English teacher who suggested English A level I airily replied that she would study sciences ( and implied English was little more than a recreational subject ) Well she did English and later read English at University which showed what influence I had. Her First was probably all the justification she could have wished.

 I was determined to be supportive even though I was dubious ( she also did Maths, Physics and French A levels) so when she got the Andrew Motion book on Philip Larkin I read it as well. I was entranced by this excellent book. Larkin who superficially appeared rather dour and uninteresting, being Librarian at Hull University for nearly 30 years, had a convoluted love life. He was also at university with Amis and they were life long friends. Although I’m not a huge fan of Larkin’s poetry it certainly convinced me that writers were interesting people.

My favourite poet is Wendy Cope. Still writing at the present day,she can be very funny while also quite poignant. Rather impertinently she made her name with her verse “making cocoa for Kingsley Amis “ which was also the title of her first book. She had never met Amis let alone made cocoa for him and it was a work of imagination and successful name dropping.

Circling back Andrew Motion was poet Laureate and was succeeded by Carol Ann Duffy. I enjoyed a recital by Duffy but I haven’t bought any of her works. In contrast I have both listened to Wendy Cope talk about her prose work and attended a workshop she held some years ago at the Lichfield Festival.

Wendy Cope good humouredly complains that poets don’t get the financial rewards of other authors. It is often easy to find the complete text of individual poems so their books are not big sellers. Cope herself has felt obliged to do many other things. The most surprising is that she was a radio and TV critic for a national paper. Hence the title of her book “Life, love and the Archers”. She feels so strongly about the unauthorised use of her work that her husband jokes her gravestone will be inscribed “all rights reserved “.

Amis felt strongly that specific genres of fiction were undeservedly felt to be inferior. He championed the cause of Science fiction with his review “New maps of hell” written in the 60’s. He directly supported  the detective story by writing one himself ”The Riverside Villas Murder “

The ultimate acknowledgement of literary snobbery comes from US novelist Evan Hunter who used a pseudonym of Ed McBain for his very successful crime series.

The Harry Potter author J K Rowling felt obliged to use a pseudonym for her none  Hogwarts stories in an ( unsuccessful ) attempt to prevent her early fame affecting her later work.

Fact

What the red tops won’t report

The Brexit collapse in the value of the pound has caused Rolls Royce to lose a stupefying 4.4 billion pounds. Arguably the most important engineering company in the UK has been left badly wounded.