"September days are here"

September Review

"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer." - Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885

Photo by GraceHues Photography on Unsplash

It’s time for this month’s review of the best reading, writing, 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.

I was blown away this month by the honour of receiving a Substack Recommends badge for this newsletter!

It has been such a great experience over the past twelve or so months writing these newsletters and researching ideas and themes that I think will interest readers.  So it was so rewarding (and a lovely surprise!) to be featured.  

I would like to both thank all my regular readers and subscribers for being here, and to welcome all the new subscribers that have joined our reading community in the past week or so.  Please leave a comment to say “Hi” if that’s you! 

September has been a bit of a strange affair in the UK, with record temperatures at the beginning of the month, and now the best autumnal weather; bursts of sun and blue skies, with an autumnal wind and the occasional rain shower. I don’t know about others, but I always feel like this is optimum reading season. Something about autumn walks and cozy nights in…

Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash

This month on Substack I’ve covered themes including a look at the use of the childbirth metaphor in literature, and the women writers who re-claimed this; the often unknown work of the American feminist writer/activist Tillie Olsen, and an examination of the poetry and life of Gwendolyn Brooks. 

I also launched a new feature on the newsletter, ‘Afterthoughts’, which looks at the themes behind the writing.  I started this essentially because of some of the insightful comments and recommendations I receive from readers after a post goes out, and thought it might be a nice way to round off a topic or theme.  So far, I’m really enjoying this feature, and have received some great feedback!  Let me know what you think :) 

This month’s watching

I recently wrote a post about Nella Last’s WWII diaries.  Following on from this, I found the whole production of the Victoria Wood dramatised film of these on YouTube, entitled Housewife, 49, and had a lovely evening to myself watching it!  

As you might expect from the late British comedian Victoria Wood, the drama has just the right amount of humour and sentimentality, and she portrays the role of Nella Last, as well as using her diaries to tell her story, with a great deal of empathy.  It opened up a lot more ideas for my research around the roles of mothers and middle-aged women, and I would definitely recommend watching. 

This month’s reading

Speaking of my research into motherhood, another area I’ve been researching is the idea of mothers and shame, so I was interested to read this review of a new hybrid book by Danish author Olga Rvan, My Work, which mixes fiction, essay and poetry, all around the idea that mothers don’t always find love at first sight with their child.  Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy! 

Other articles and reviews I’ve enjoyed reading this month were this look at the work of Jewelle Gomez, author, poet, playwright and activist, whose first novel was turned down by mainstream publishers until she was claimed by a feminist press.  The article looks at how she changed the world of vampire fiction and continues to claim space as a Black lesbian writer. 

I loved this feature about the newly unveiled bronze statue on a bench in Oxfordshire to commemorate Agatha Christie’s home for 40 years.  I can imagine it will receive many visitors and fans of the author’s prolific work, and like to think of passers-by sitting down to read one of her many detective novels beside her statue 😀

Two features caught my eye this month around the rise of banning books in US public schools, which I’ve referenced before in earlier newsletters, although this piece did give some hope, calling attention to Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton’s call to Hollywood stars to support the campaign against the banning of books in schools.   

Finally, as a researcher into Modernist literature and a keen walker, I loved this look at a walk that takes in Virginia Woolf’s inspiration for To the Lighthouse in St Ives, West Cornwall, which ends in the Badger pub - apparently a favourite of Woolf’s. 

Having once, many years ago, made the pilgrimage to Cornwall to visit Jamaica Inn for a pint and to see the site of Daphne du Maurier’s setting for her famous novel, this walk is now on my list of future places to visit! 

Back Sunday with a new literary discussion. Thank you for reading :)

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