Weekly Reading Report

Further research for my upcoming course on the English Comic Novel in the 20th Century has caused me to pick up a book from my shelves that I had never quite gotten around to: The Life of E. F. Benson by Brian Masters. And I am pleased to say that it's excellent - a beautifully written, constantly fascinating biography that tells me heaps of things I didn't know. An absolute must-read for Benson fans, I should think.



The same research has had me dipping in and out of Laura Thompson's Life in a Cold Climate, a truly excellent biography of Nancy Mitford which has been issued a couple of times, I think - I discovered that I had the original edition and the new edition from Head of Zeus. Jolly good, though and light and funny just like its subject. Would please any Mitford fan.



Finally, I've been getting all poetic with Aden Rolfe's Fake Nostalgia. Rolfe is a very young Sydney poet whose work I first heard rather than read. He invited me to a "listening" to a podcast he had written, and it was simply superb. Also made me think that people should do that kind of thing more often - 100 or so people sitting in a cocktail lounge intently listening to the wireless. Anyway, False Nostalgia is more brilliance from this youthful pen, and I wonder how anyone could be so clever at that age. Makes me wish I hadn't wasted my entire youth on drugs and sex. Oh well, too late now. But do check out Rolfe's work - I can only assume he will become a bigger and bigger name on the Australian literary scene. Incidentally, the book is published by Giramondo who are responsible for so much brave and interesting Australian writing.


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