• About
  • GCA and the need for funds
  • How to follow Ninevoices
  • Publications
  • Writings

ninevoices

~ Nine writers on reading and writing.

ninevoices

Monthly Archives: May 2013

Forty-six years and still travelling…hopefully

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Forty-six years, Valerie

≈ 1 Comment

Rain. You will always remember the rain. You left a sunny and warm September England and arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in horrendous rain. They told you it was the end of Hurricane Isaac. You were earlier than expected to pick up the hire car and it was not ready. He complained, long and loud. There was, of course, more of that to follow.

But that rain was only a tester for what followed later. A two-hundred mile drive to visit Louisbourg, the tickets were bought, and you boarded a bus to the French fort, which the British had destroyed in 1758 and was rebuilt to give employment to the miners when the mines in nearby Sydney closed in 1967. When you left the bus, there was a slight drizzle. You joined a guided tour and from that moment Hurricane Leslie tossed its gigantic bath tub on the site, which was immediately evacuated for safety reasons.

You drove in soaking clothes – there was no protection from this water – to eventually arrive at a comfortable inn in St Peter where you hair-dried and ironed the clothes.

But a week or so later there was more of that to follow.

Christine’s column, Sevenoaks Chronicle

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Christine, Column

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Sevenoaks Chronicle

30th May 2013

http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/CHRISTINE-MACKINNON-park-millionaire/story-19135755-detail/story.html

The Best Novel of the 20th Century?

25 Saturday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Books, Elizabeth, Read Lately

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Great Novels, Sicily, The Leopard

Although you won’t find it on many lists, The Leopard by Giuseppi Tomasi di Lampedusa has been described not only as one of the most important Italian novels and in the top ten of historical novels, but also as “the best novel of the 20th Century”.  Set in Sicily at the time of the Risorgimento — the unification of Italy in 1860 — it explores in exquisite detail one man’s confrontation with change and mortality.

The man in question is Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, head of one of the great landed families in Sicily, the personification of the Gattopardo (actually a serval rather than a leopard) which adorns the Salina coat of arms. Despite the blond hair, blue eyes and height that bespeak Norman heritage, the Prince is a typical Sicilian: taciturn, observant, pragmatic. In between hunting, astronomy and occasional visits to a mistress he rules his family and his estates as any feudal lord might have done. Yet he recognises that change is not only inevitable, but necessary if the family’s influence is to survive. ‘Everything needs to change so everything can stay the same’, as his much-loved, but penniless nephew Tancredi Falconeri tells him.

As Tancredi fights for the new order, the Prince breaks with tradition and invites Don Calogero, a self-made man on the rise, to dinner. Calogero brings his beautiful daughter, Angelica. This provides almost the entire action of the novel: Tancredi, hitherto destined for the Prince’s own daughter, Concetta, falls in love with Angelica. The Prince, however distastefully and to Concetta’s lasting sorrow, promotes the match both for Angelica’s wealth and her father’s standing in the new regime.

The novel was controversial on publication (and note, fellow writers, that it struggled to find a publisher). It was attacked from both right and left for its portrayal of upper class decadence and the lives of the Sicilian working class. And yet, it prevailed to win the Strega Prize and to be revered among many famous writers. Its success lies perhaps in its precise and evocative portrayal of a man in search of spiritual anchors as his world changes as well as of the timeless depiction of Sicily itself. Indeed, ‘depiction’ is perhaps too small a word. The island’s character is revealed in ‘…the deep gloom of Sicilian summer’, and Palermo’s ‘…sense of death which not even the vibrant Sicilian light could ever manage to disperse.’. Even the style and pace of the writing conveys the ‘voluptuous torpor’ of Sicilian life.

And yet, the novel comes to a rather rushed and unsatisfactory conclusion. There is a jump from 1862 to the Prince’s death in 1885 and another to 1910 when we find the Prince’s daughters, all spinsters in their seventies, living in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are visited by the widowed Angelica, but we never find out what happened to Tancredi. And they tussle with the Church over the standing of their chapel. Although I’ve said little about it, Catholicism also pervades the novel, but it’s not until the end that the Salinas appear subject to the Church, their last shred of influence having been torn away.

At only 200 pages, The Leopard is a gem, almost a miracle of a novel. I would include it in my list of great novels of all time, but would be hard pressed to name any one novel ‘The Best”. Nominations, anyone?

Quote

Hi ninevoices, …

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in News

≈ 1 Comment

Hi ninevoices,
Just dipping in the water. Feel very guilty that have not ventured into this. Life a bit diffiuclt. And I avoid… things like this.
Jane

Sometimes writing feels like this…

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Christine, Seen lately

≈ 2 Comments

Miyoko Shida Rigolo

Watch to the very end.  

Christine

Inspiration from the Bloomsbury Group?

13 Monday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Maggie, News

≈ 2 Comments

Monk’s House, the weather-boarded cottage of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, near Lewes in East Sussex, is open Wednesdays to Sundays until 27 October. The rooms appear much as they would have done when Virginia created some of her best-known works and include her special ‘writing hut’ in the garden.

Sissinghurst Castle also has an exhibition with new insights into the marriage of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, including a newly discovered poem written by Vita to Violet Trefusis.

Details of both venues from the National Trust Website.

Maggie

Memory of Izu

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Elizabeth, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

The wind blows
Bear grass turns green to silver
Tears won’t come

Three-word poem challenge

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Christine, Maggie, Poetry, Sarah

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

challenge, Poetry

Can you write a three-word poem? Here are three we made earlier:

Ode to William the malingerer

Still ill, Bill?

End of the honeymoon?

Fat bum, hon.

Failed murder plot

You’re here, dear!

Twitter fiction

06 Monday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Articles, Christine, Read Lately

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Damian Barr, Guardian, twitter fiction

From The Guardian, 4th May 2013 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/04/twitter-fiction-damian-barr

The writer and columnist [Damian Barr] takes up our Twitter-based challenge to come up with a story in 140 characters or fewer:

“Optimism is Savile Row then Harley St. The surgeon sighed expensively as x-rays and fate flickered. She made a note to cancel his winter coat.”

– Anyone fancy having a go?

Christine

A Plurality of Grammars

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by ninevoices in Elizabeth, Grammar, Observations

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

grammar, Today

During the Today news programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning there was a feature about grammar. Or, to be more precise, bad grammar. The discussion was inspired by The Bad Grammar Awards due to be presented today. The awards are intended to alert people to the decline in grammatical standards, but the discussion quickly turned to a ‘left’ v. ‘right’ debate on how strict English standards should be.

The speaker from the ‘left’, Professor Michael McCarthy of the University of Nottingham, opined that English had a ‘plurality of grammars’: a grammar for speaking; a grammar for writing; a grammar for broadcasting; and so on. This statement struck a chord with me. Having studied many languages over the years, what distinguishes English – and what I love about it – is its great dynamism, a dynamism that both informs and reflects the underlying culture. I admire the ingenuity of text language and the utility of global business English as much as the finest prose. If we were to have an ‘official’ grammar, who would be the officials? Straitjacketing the language straitjackets the culture, the society and the economy. Just look at modern France with its Académie. There is a reason English has become a global lingua franca.

I know many won’t agree. Professor McCarthy spoke of the ‘pif’ or ‘public irritation factor’ that occurs when someone persistently misuses certain words or forms. Some people can’t abide a dangling participle even though the alternative might sound stiff, convoluted or just plain wrong. But, ultimately, usage will decide what’s acceptable and what’s not. That’s the only standard I need.

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014
  • February 2014
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013

Categories

  • 2017 Hysteria Writing Competition
  • Adventure
  • Agents
  • Alan Bennett
  • Amazon Self-Publishing Award
  • Art
  • audiobooks
  • Authors
  • Autobiography
    • Claire Tomalin
    • Stephen King
  • Barbara Pym
    • A Glass of Blessings
  • BBC1
  • Being a writer
  • Bestsellers
  • Biography
  • Book etiquette
  • Book Recommendation
  • Books for Christmas
  • Bookshops
  • Bridport Longlist Published
  • Cecily
  • challenge
  • Characters
  • Children's books
  • Christopher Fielding
  • Classics
  • clergy
  • Collaboration
  • Colm Tóibín
  • Comedy
  • Coming up
  • Competition
  • Competition Win
  • Competition Winners
  • Competitions to Enter
  • Crime
  • criticism
  • Dame Hilary Mantel, Reith Lectures 2017, Historical Fiction
  • Dialogue
  • Diary/notebook extracts
  • Drama
  • eBooks
  • Elizabeth Gaskell
  • Exeter Novel Prize
  • Factual writing
  • Fame
  • feedback
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Finding an Agent
  • Finishing that novel
  • Folk customs
  • Forty-six years
  • Fowey Festival Adult Short Story Competition. Daphne du Maurier
  • Genres
  • Get Your Novel Noticed
  • Getting down to it
  • Getting Published
  • Girls Gone By Publishers
  • Good Housekeeping Novel Competition
  • Grammar
  • Halloween Writing Competition
  • Heard lately
  • heroes
  • heroines
  • Historia
  • Historical
  • Historical Novels
    • book reviews
  • History
  • Homework
  • Horror
  • How to Write a Short Story
  • Humour
  • Hystyeria 6
  • Ideas
  • Imagery
  • Imagination and the Writer
  • Inspiration
  • Jane Austen
  • Jane Austen House Museum
  • L. M. Montgomery
  • Laptops and Coffin Lids
  • Location
  • Lockdown
  • Maggie
  • Management
  • manuscript services
  • Margaret Kirk
  • Marketing
  • McKitterick Prize
  • Memoir
  • Military
  • Mslexia
  • Mslexia Writer's Diary
  • Myslexia Magazine
  • Mystery
  • Mythology
  • Newly Published
  • Newly Published Author
  • News
    • Obituary
  • Ninevoices
    • Anita
    • Christine
    • Ed
    • Elizabeth
    • Jane
    • Maggie
    • Sarah
      • Competitions
    • Tanya
    • Valerie
  • Ninevoices' winning short story
  • Observations
    • Grammar
    • Words
  • On now
  • Orion Publishing
  • Our readers
  • Plot
  • PMRGCAuk
  • Poetry
  • Police Procedurals
  • Publish Your Book
  • Publishing
  • Punctuation
  • Puppy Dogs
  • Queen Elizabeth II
  • radio
  • Read Lately
    • Articles
    • Books
  • Reading
  • rejection
  • religion
  • Research
  • reviews
  • RNA Learning Programme
  • Romance
  • Romantic Novelists' Association
  • Sarah Dawson
  • Satire
  • Science fiction
  • Seamus Heaney
  • Searchlight Writing for Children Awards
  • Seen lately
  • Shadow Man
  • Short stories
  • Short Story Competition
  • Social Media
  • Spelling
  • Sport
  • Spotlight Adventures in Fiction
  • Structure
  • Style
  • submissions
  • Supernatural
  • Synopsis Writing
  • Technology
  • Television
  • The Bridport
  • The Bridport, Lucy Cavendish, Bath, Yeovil, Winchester
  • The Daily Mail Crime Novel Competition
  • The Impostor Syndrome
  • The Jane Austen House Museum
  • The London Magazine Novel Competition, Henshaw Press, Writing Magazine, Writers' Forum
  • The Mirror & the Light
  • The Servant, Getting Published
  • The Times
  • The Writing Life
  • Theatre
  • Thomas Hardy
  • Thrillers
  • Translation
  • Travelling hopefully
  • Uncategorized
  • Valerie
  • villains
  • Vocabulary
  • Volunteering
  • War
  • Websites
  • Westerns
  • Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing
  • Winning Competitions
  • Winning Writing Competitions
  • Witchcraft
  • Witches
  • Wolf Hall
  • Words
  • Writercraft
  • Writerly emotions
  • Writers' block
  • Writers' Forum
  • Writers' groups
  • Writing
    • Column
    • Drama
    • Fiction
    • Poetry
    • Stories
  • Writing Competitions to Enter
  • Writing conventions
  • Writing games
  • Writing Historical Fiction
  • Yeovil First Novel Competition

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • ninevoices
    • Join 272 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • ninevoices
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar