To mark the festival of red polyester lace and disappointment that is Valentine’s Day, here is ‘Love Poem’ by American poet John Frederick Nims – not only beautiful but a useful hint about the sort of things women actually want to hear… My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases, At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring, Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen, And have
If the literary internet resembles the school playground – and it does – McSweeney’s is the class wit who’s got all the answers and is ready for cocktails while you’re still learning to tie your shoelaces. Launched by novelist Dave Eggers in 1998 as a literary journal dedicated to rejected work, McSweeneys is now a sort of alternative publishing empire with a loyal subscriber base and a strong independent bookstore
After forty years of being represented by men; favourably by good friend David Hockney in Mrs and Mrs Clark and Percy (above), and later, less flatteringly in ex-husband, Ossie Clark’s diaries, designer Celia Birtwell is publishing her own story. She chose style writer, Dominic Lutyens to help write about her life and work. In a refreshing contrast to the current trend in autobiographies she has avoided sensational revelations and has
‘A tradition has now for long been established that cooking and cleaning are woman’s work. As these occupations are among the most tiresome which humanity has to endure, this tradition is very unfortunate for women. But there it is; and the problem is how to get what is needful done as rapidly as possible, so that one can go and do something else, more lucrative, interesting, or amusing. The general