"Old" books of the year
[Clive]
Here's a little festive series. Every Christmas, the newspapers and mags do their round-ups of the best new books. But what about titles from the past that people have either just discovered or re-read? My "old" choice, by a long way, would be Norman Lewis's "Naples '44", an account of his experiences as a British Army intelligence officer in WW2. I galloped through it this summer after seeing it mentioned in a Washington Post article about the aftermath of the Iraq war. I honestly can't recommend Lewis's book highly enough. It's a truly magical piece of work, tinged with tragedy and absurdity, yet full of beauty amidst the chaos.
I've been asking my fellow-bloggers for their nominations. First off is the writer, Susan Hill (left), author of the novel which inspired that long-running West End hit, "The Woman In Black". She has one of the most popular lit-blogs around, and is planning a "virtual" literary festival in the New Year.
"In 1924 Virginia and Leonard Woolf, at their Hogarth Press, published a novel which is a masterpiece, as great a novel, I dare suggest, as any of Virginia's own. It is called "The Rector's Daughter", its author was a young woman called F.M. Mayor and I have re-read it often and every, every time, it comes up fresh and its greatness astonishes. It speaks the poignant, unbearably harsh truth about love – the love between parent and child which may destroy a future; and the unspoken passion of a spinster for a man who suddenly becomes silly with infatuation for someone younger and quite unsuitable. Painful beyond bearing, acutely imagined and immaculately written, F.M. Mayor`s masterpiece is as impressive now as when VW took it on. It is out of print again and I plan to re-publish it. It is too great a novel to be unavailable."
