"August Days are hot and still..."

August Review (Plus: Happy Anniversary!)

“August days are hot and still,
Not a breath on house or hill,”

August by Annette Wynne

Photo by David Knox on Unsplash

It’s time for this month’s review of the best reading, watching, and listening!  This is an extra end-of-the-month post for all subscribers.  If you enjoy this post, please consider a free or paid subscription to receive weekly literary discussions straight into your inbox.

August has seen me in full reflective mode, as often happens when I take time off and relax the routines a little bit.  I have to confess to being a real routine-junkie (see my post on writing rituals!) and so although the summer often offers a chance to re-calibrate, I also find myself anticipating the new ‘term’ in which to get back to a regular writing schedule.

This week also sees the one year anniversary of this newsletter!!  I can’t believe the time has passed so quickly and that I have managed to commit to researching and writing a newsletter every Sunday.  I also introduced extra fortnightly Tuesday posts and these end of the month reviews half-way through the year.

I have to say that the experience of writing for Substack has been truly unique in that it is a space I always feel I want to get back to, and I genuinely love reading and responding to comments after a post goes out.  YOU have the best ideas on the themes and writers I research each week, and I have learnt so much from this reading community 😀

Another thing which has been a wonderful surprise to me this year is the friends and colleagues I feel I have made through the Substack community.  I have made connections with some great writers whom I admire and feel grateful to work amongst within this space.  I also appeared as a guest on my first ever podcast!

I have also been blown away by the readers who have chosen to invite me into their inbox each week.  When I started out last August, my subscribers were all people I knew personally!  I also have no social media channels, so I didn’t bring anybody with me from other platforms.  Each and every subscriber has found me through either recommendations from some of the other writers here (thank you so much!!) or from finding me through the Substack network.  When I turned on paid earlier in the year, I was so pleased that some of you were even willing to support my work with a regular paid subscription - and for someone who used to hide their writing in a cupboard, never to be read, until I was over 40 years old, you have no idea how much that means.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

With that in mind, just a gentle nod to remind you that you can upgrade to a paid subscription at any time.  As I know how difficult times are at the moment, and how many great writers are out there that you may already be supporting, I have recently adjusted my yearly subscription tier to allow for this option to work out at just £2 per month!  

This month on A Narrative of their Own, I have been featuring some of my favourite early posts, such as this discussion on the connection between Virginia Woolf and Harry Styles, and this one on the subversive subtext of Women and the City, as well as sharing my first ever full essay on Jean Rhys and the Mother-Daughter Complex.  This has had the dual benefit of allowing new subscribers (hello!) the chance to read some posts they may have missed, as well as giving me the chance to take a couple of weeks away to plot some new themes and writers for the coming months. 

What I’ve been reading this month

I haven’t been reading as much online over the past month as I have been enjoying time out with family.  However, in line with one of my major research interests, motherhood and creativity, I came across this Article on queering motherhood.  It is an area I am fascinated to read deeper into in the coming months.

I also found this honest Review of a new book about George Orwell’s wife of interest, and sparked an idea for an upcoming post.

This interview with writer Loren Grush on her new book The Six all about the first NASA female astronauts in 1978 was also fascinating, particularly with regard to the resistance the women faced in being accepted as part of the space mission.

Finally, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this year’s winner of the Waterstones debut fiction prize, Alice Winn. In Memoriam tells the love story of two WWI soldiers, taken from clippings from a student newspaper.  

What I’ve been watching this month

This month I came across a light comedy drama about early motherhood, The Let Down, on Netflix.  This likeable Australian comedy has some deeper themes that I wasn’t expecting around pro-choice, as well as mothers and shame, which I found really interesting.  I haven’t seen these topics tackled in this way before, and found it more original than I had anticipated.  I may even go back to ponder some of the issues raised in it in a later newsletter…

What I’ve been listening to this month 

On the recommendation of a writer friend, I just listened to this short podcast episode from The New Yorker Radio Hour featuring an interview with author Tessa Hadley.  I loved her book Free Love and so was interested to hear how she responded to criticisms around writing the ‘domestic’ and why she didn’t get her first novel published until the age of 40. 

That’s it for this month’s review.  As you can see, my reading has been a little lighter as I have been enjoying more time outdoors, walking in the woods, on the beach, and spending some much needed time away from screens!

Once again, whether you have been a subscriber since the beginning, or have just joined our reading community: welcome, and thank you for being here 😀 

If you have just found this newsletter and love discussions on all things literature, as well as connections to both contemporary culture and the art of writing, please consider a free or paid subscription.  Paid subscriptions help me to continue to write and research quality newsletters every week - and the yearly fee works out at just £2 per month!  Thank you for reading 😀