It's quite odd attempting to update when I do it so infrequently these days. What do I put in? What do I leave out? Who really cares? I think the answer to that is very few people (although very important people), so I will put in whatever the hell occurs to me.
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I finished the
Jane Austen biography a while ago. It made me want to read the rest of Austen's novels in quick succession, and all of Tomalin's other biographies straight afterwards. It also made me want to visit
Chawton Cottage, where Austen lived for a while. Quite how Tomalin managed to write such an illuminating biography with such scant primary material available is beyond me. I relished the historical and social detail that was packed into the book, as well as Tomalin's erudite tone. Much was included about Austen's family members, neighbours and friends, about whom there is a lot more surviving material than Jane. And yet if it wasn't for her and her novels, no one would be writing a book about them now.
I've also picked up Hermione Lee's wonderful biography of Virginia Woolf
again. In contrast to Austen, Woolf left a lot of primary material for biographers behind. But even then, you still sometimes get the sense that you don't know what was
really going on in her head. And I quite like that. I do wonder, though, how on earth biographers in many years hence will write about those alive today. The trails left by people via the web, phones, plastic cards etc. are immense. Is anything really private now? I suppose the answer to that is yes; but you have to want it to be, and perhaps work pretty hard to retain it.
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I met up with
Maxine today, which was of course a pleasure. We'd hoped to get returns for the sold out
Plague Over England, but as that wasn't to be, we had some nice burritos
here instead. Speaking of nice food, I've been attempting to branch out in my cooking and try some different vegetarian dishes (only on weekends of course; on weekday evenings I'm too exhausted to cook anything but whatever is easiest to throw together). The thing is, although my cooking experiments taste okay when I'm eating them, afterwards I tend to feel a bit unwell. Steve has eaten my dishes too, and felt fine. I usually make enough for leftovers, but they don't really tempt me. I had planned to take photos of my new culinary ventures, and maybe post them online; but perhaps I'll wait until I'm not repulsed by my own cooking.
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Disclaimer: I am slightly drunk.
Comments (2)
This is a very well written post for someone who is slightly drunk ... well done, gold star and all that jazz!