Welcome to Litsy!

Final bk of 2021 is for 1st rdg grp of 2022 + was a really good read. Told with Hilary Mantel's cutting wit + brilliant prose this is a story of 2 girls who form an unlikely relationship in childhood +into Catholic grammar school where their background is at odds with more affluent pupils. Skip to their going to London uni in 1970 where they drift+deal with sex,new friends, religion, rivalry,food issues,+more. A great story by a wonderful writer.

Argh, I love Mantel, but find her books very hit or miss depending on her editor's ability to reign in the literary for the sake of the story. This one was compelling, but I found the poetry references somewhat ostentatious and was irritated by the lack of delivery on what felt foreshadowed in the childhood story. To me it was never clear what bound Carmel and Karina in the first place. And I didn't recognise love anywhere in this book.

A new Neil Gaiman novel, a novel by Hillary Mantel that you might not have heard of, free places on a writing course for BAME authors, & we say goodbye to Dick Bruna, creator of Miffy. https://britlitblog.com/2017/02/17/today-in-brit-lit-news-17th-feb-2017/