Book after Book

By Rose Tremain Published by Vintage Synopsis: Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward Vlll abdicated in 1936, ended her life as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone - friend, foe or journalist - to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, has forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her.  The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected. An East German border guard, redundant after the Berlin Wall comes down in 1989, imagines that he might still have a purpose in life: he tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland. A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his 'frame' - or does he? And there's a Christmas story set in a seedy hotel…...

Written by Emmeline Pankhurst Published by Vintage Books "I began to think about the vote in women’s hands not only as a right but as a desperate necessity." (p.27) This ye ar marks the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which granted votes to women over the age of 30 with property valued at £5 or more. It is thanks to the anniversary of this milestone in the Votes for Women campaign that I reached for my copy of My Own Story , Emmeline Pankhurst’s memoir, first published in Great Britain in 1914. The faded receipt hidden among the pages places my purchase on the 30th December 2014 in the shop of the National Portrait Gallery in London. It has taken me a while to do justice to Mrs Pankhurst’s words and I now firmly believe that everyone should read this book, regardless of sex or political beliefs. If you are looking for gossip, you will find none. What you will gain by reading this book is a clear and matter-of-fact insight into the Women’...

By Tim Parks Published by Vintage Books Earlier in the year I read and reviewed Tim Park’s Italian Neighbours , where the British author recounted with wit and humour the first steps of his new life in Italy. An Italian Education follows up on Park’s experiences in the land of la dolce vita and is as successful as its predecessor. The book opens with the writer and his wife in the process of buying a flat in the surroundings of Verona and having their first baby. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived in Italy or how long you’ve been paying taxes for: this is what makes you accepted! Buying a house and having a baby means that you’re not going to leave any time soon! As Parks demonstrates with his funny observations and sharp remarks, Italy is a country where kids rule. They are pampered and made to feel like they’re the only ones who count in the world – by parents, relatives and strangers alike! At the same time, having a family (the hilariously-described concept of tenere famigli...

By Tim Parks Published by Vintage Books As an Italian who has been living in the UK for several years I have developed an ambiguous relationship with my home country: I have little praise for Italy but will defend it with fervent national pride if foreigners say anything negative about it. Unless the negativity is aimed at the current leadership of the country… but that’s another story. So, when I decided to read Tim Parks’s Italian Neighbours – An Englishmen in Verona as part of the Italy in Books reading challenge 2011 , I thought that I’d have to sigh and tut frequently at all the clichés I was sure to find. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I grinned, I chuckled, I laughed out loud and not one single frown crossed my face. In Italian Neighbours we follow the writer and his wife during the difficult months of being the new people in town, which in this case is an Italian village nestled among the hills of the beautiful Veneto region. A witty and inquisitive observer, Parks’s descri...