News
Life returns
Rudolf von Alt – View in the Alservorstadt, 1872 (detail); Albertina, Vienna
What’s New
More Than Bearable: Marian Engel’s Bear.
by Alice Crawley-Carr
Bear by Marian Engel was first published in 1976. Despite being rejected by Engel’s first publisher, it went on to win the prestigious Governor General’s Award and, despite the controversy caused by the bestiality in the book, is considered a classic in Canada. Margaret Atwood praises it as “a strange and wonderful book, plausible as kitchens, but shapely as a folktale, and with the same disturbing resonance.” Therefore, Daunt Books are republishing Bear in an effort to bring its curious narrative to a new generation of readers and its off-beat story is sure to pique interest.
Fiction
The Train to Paris
by Lucy DeanI can’t help watching them. The young couple sitting opposite me, travelling backwards on blue seats. They brush the tips of their fingers, upper arms, knees through jeans beneath the grey, plastic table. They speak with intensity, staring at each other’s lips moving.
Reviews
More Than Bearable: Marian Engel’s Bear.
by Alice Crawley-CarrBear by Marian Engel was first published in 1976. Despite being rejected by Engel’s first publisher, it went on to win the prestigious Governor General’s Award and, despite the controversy caused by the bestiality in the book, is considered a classic in Canada. Margaret Atwood praises it as “a strange and wonderful book, plausible as kitchens, but shapely as a folktale, and with the same disturbing resonance.” Therefore, Daunt Books are republishing Bear in an effort to bring its curious narrative to a new generation of readers and its off-beat story is sure to pique interest.
Love & Sex
Bad Sex Matters
by Karin JonesIn a recent fit of anxiety over whether I was doing enough to keep my finger on the pulse of contemporary sex, I signed up for Cosmopolitan’s weekly newsletter called The Thirst. It’s essentially a fluff piece platform to promote an array of sex toys and paraphernalia, but I keep opening it because I’m amused by its focus on sex positions which suggest it’s possible there is an infinite number of ways to pleasure each other with a finite number of appendages and digits.
Galleries
Lockdown Love Letters
by Josie BeszantI am a collage and assemblage artist with a strong interest in storytelling.
I have worked as an artist for 30 years, as well as teaching art and running a gallery in the Yorkshire Dales where I am based.
Articles
Sobriety made me brave enough to put a Hoover up my bum
by Harry Clayton-Wright
Sobriety made be brave enough to put a Hoover up my bum. There I said it. So glad to finally have that off my chest.
History Of Pleasure
ARTICLE: Thirteen Facts About Victorian Abortion
by Laura WardIn the wake of the historic Irish Referendum, Laura Ward looks back through past societies at the almost unbelievable obstacles facing women in the UK who sought terminations and the bizarre underground culture that rose around them. Abortion was the only medical procedure to be banned by law