I was up on a stepladder at midnight - having enjoyed the BBC documentary about Edna O'Brien - trying to find my old Penguin copy of The Country Girls ... alas, it wasn't there. I'm a messy person but my books are in alphabetical order and this shouldn't happen! I felt a bit sad as I don't want any old copy of The Country Girls, I want the copy I read in 1978 (the next two volumes are named and dated in my still neat schoolgirlish hand!) with a surge of recognition ... recently escaped from the clutches of Irish nuns, I was waiting for Life to begin!
Hard to believe that Edna O'Brien is nearly 90.
After a gloomy French film - based on a gloomy story by Dostoevsky - at the ICA (grey, gloomy and life-sapping but a nice caff!) ... I rescued the morning with a visit to the best ice-cream shop in London where I perched on a pink stool that matched my strawberry and peppercorn sorbet and soaked up the lurid Cinecittà posters. And I was thrilled to see that they were selling (and using) this inspirational book by one of my heroines.
Yesterday afternoon it seemed like every American tourist in town had tickets for The Starry Messenger (that means there's a higher than usual chance of sitting behind the 7ft man who's as broad as he's tall - and sure enough I was!) The play was ... looo--oong.
6 comments:
I wonder if that was the same documentary on Edna O Brian I saw a few years back? It was very enjoyable. I have read almost everything by her and have a shelf of her books. Like you I shelve my fiction alphabetically; otherwise how the heck would you find anything? I'm sorry you've lost your copy of the Country Girls - how galling.
The Country Girls trilogy remains my favourite of hers.
Hope your week is going well.
Yes, my favourite, too, Veronica. I know the documentary you're thinking of - I enjoyed it, too - but this a new one, part of the Imagine series. Expect it's on iPlayer.
I once lived in a rather Bohemian little enclave just off the South Circular. A (now disgraced) writer called Des Hogan lived there too and he used to host soirees. Edna O'Brien came to one of those and so did a young Kazuo Ishiguro.
I have searched my alphabetically arranged shelves and cannot find any Edna O'Briens which is strange.
Hmm - Country Girls break free in bookshelf rebellion???? Cait and Baba assert rights to be filed under W or T?
Did you see the programme, Lucille? Edna O'B said that despite her party reputation, she only went out about four times a year - so you were honoured!
No I didn’t see it and I have to admit that I wasn’t present at the EO’B event. The KI evening was stressful. We were each obliged to put on our party turn. I didn’t have one.
What a bully!Sounds like enforced karaoke! My party turn would be going home.
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