The Guardian's Blog, page 78

Fay Weldon webchat – as it happened

The prolific novelist is publishing a career-spanning short story collection, Mischief, and answered your questions – tackling everything from contemporary feminism to the fascination with the upper classes

2.52pm GMT

That’s everything from Fay – many thanks to her for taking part. Her new book Mischief is available now.

2.52pm GMT

Claribelle52 asks:

Dear Fay, I have read a lof of your book but my favourite has to be Heart of the Country, definitely of its time and the TV adaptation was great too - perhaps the beeb will show it again! Do you feel saddened as I do by the current lack of feminism awareness of the younger generation ? and by that I mean anyone 40 or younger really!

Heart of the Country was a 1987 BBC mini-series (which had a young Christian Bale in it!). The novel was written after the TV show, when I realised that one of the the minor characters was actually the major one, so it was much changed. I think it's the favourite of all my novels.

As for your other question: yes, some of the younger generations can make one despair. But you should meet my creative writing students – feisty, energetic, perceptive, free-thinkers all. Feminism is in their bones, they just don't talk about it all the time. I have great hopes of the future.

2.48pm GMT

Monica Cafferky asks:

Hi Fay, do you think there is a trend towards people reading more shorter fiction? If so why? Love your new novella, by the way, it’s the first sci fi ghost story that I have come across.

Yes, I think the advent of the e-book has reconciled publishers to the shorter story. People are short of time. There is so much to be said and so little time to say it in.

2.10pm GMT

Heather Kaye asks:

So you’ve turned your attention to the short story with this new book, Mischief. Do you have a preference on form – short story or novel? Who is your favourite short story writer?

It rather depends in how much you've to say. I've been interspersing short stories with novels since I began - writing them is a way of getting short, sharp ideas out of my head when I'm concentrating on something else so I can get back to the novel. The first one in the book is 1975.

My favourite short story writer is Helen Simpson.

2.07pm GMT

Teresah asks:

I have so many hilarious stories rattling around in my head that I think would make great books - did you know that your stories were going to appeal or did you just take a leap of faith?

Leaps of faith, every one.

2.06pm GMT

JustineJordan asks:

Do you have a favourite among the short stories you’ve picked for Mischief, and if so, why?

A Knife for Cutting Mangoes. Short and sweet and makes its point.

2.05pm GMT

stevespunker asks:

Hello Fay, do you think we have progressed since you appeared on the BBCs Hypotheticals with Cat Stephens?

No.

2.00pm GMT

ID3129761 asks:

I am fascinated to read about your return to an ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ setting for your new novel, ‘Habits of the House’. Why do you feel depicting masters/mistresses and servants is still relevant to contemporary life?
And did you enjoy depicting food as a symbol of class difference?

Because readers are still fascinated by it – the 'secure times when everything moved slowly and letters went by post and everyone knew their place'. We can be glad that things have changed, but at least the big houses provided a good livelihood and opportunities for promotion – better than working on the land or in a factory which was the fate of most girls! Going 'into service' was a way out for many of them, when the marriage rate was only 1 in 3.

And yes, everything was fun about writing Habits of the House and the two sequels.

1.56pm GMT

OddFellow asks:

How is Rupert your grandson? Used to know him in Blandford, Dorset.

Rupert's actually my step grandson: he's thriving in Brighton – one of the two best jazz drummers I know along with my grandson Felix Weldon.

1.54pm GMT

clareyesno asks:

Do you think women have never had it so good? It sometimes feels like misogyny is at an all-time high (particularly online), despite all the advances that have been made in the last three or four decades.

We have it good insofar as we now all have important choices – to marry or not marry, have children or not, and so on. What we can’t choose is not to go out to work! Since women joined the labour market one male wage is not enough to support a family.

Men are misogynist anonymously, online. Perhaps they’re not always so bad at home. But they’re fairly angry. And I think what makes them angry are the women who deny there is any difference in the genders; not just that women are as good as men at most things, but that they are men. Men’s experience of women is that they are very different indeed, that they are emotional rather then rational, taking offence at the slightest thing, and all that.

1.50pm GMT

Melmouth asks:

Do you regret making the comments you made about rape a few years ago (which were interpreted in some parts of the media as “Fay Weldon says being raped isn’t a big deal”)?

Certainly better if I had said nothing. What I actually said was ‘Rape is not the worst thing that can happen to a woman.’ Worse, I had in mind, was to be raped and then murdered, which still seems to me to be the case. The response I got seemed to me to be very much along ‘death rather then dishonour’ lines, which so afflicts women in other parts of the world.

1.48pm GMT

newyorkred asks:

What are your feelings about the vitality of literary fiction in our newly electronic age? How does the reception of new work feel when compared with publishing work in the 1960s or 70s, say?

With Mischief the reception has been pretty good. Writers go on being writers. Some kinds of writing suit the electronic age, some don’t, I think it depends on what one writes. Ebooks are for people on the move, mostly young. Print books are for people in a contemplative mood. A few cross the barrier. Certainly in the 60s and 70s more newspaper space was devoted to literature, and reviewers tended to be more knowledgeable. But back then there were far fewer books written.

1.43pm GMT

ID4402476 asks:

Is feminism as a tool for empowering women still a force in our culture today, or do you think there is an element of fascism in the beauty industry which imposes an impossible beauty standard for women thus obscuring their value as women (independent of “what they look like”)?

The universal camera has changed everything, Women are looked at wherever they go, street cameras, selfies, social media: the competition to look good has intensified. I don’t think we can blame outside forces, just ourselves, for caring too much about our appearance. It’s not the beauty industry alone – they’ve been at it for decades – it’s us.

1.40pm GMT

onalongsabbatical asks:

What keeps you writing? Do you find that you’re still discovering new things in the process - about human beings, yourself, psychology, for instance? Are you, also, still learning about writing itself, or does it come easily now?

It’s invention that keeps me going. I’m forever creating alternative universes to inhabit, while trying to link them up to ours. Actually, I think it’s an addiction. I remember sitting on a No 11 bus going up Fleet Street in 1967 writing The End (those were pen and paper days) and thinking but I could go doing this for the rest of my life. And so I did.

1.36pm GMT

christine50 asks:

How to not lose your own identity/independence whilst in the midst of being a long-term carer? How is it, that society still expects women in the main, to accept the role of carer without complaint?

I suspect you keep your independence and identity by complaining. You need respite care, you need better facilities, you need company, fun, entertainment like any other human being. Complain, battle, fight, achieve. Complain bitterly about a society that doesn’t want you to complain. All very well, you say. I know. As a fall-back, Open University?

1.32pm GMT

silvycz asks:

Can you expand on the idea that you find atheism depressing?

I think they must find that rather depressing too. I certainly don’t want to impose my way of life on anyone else. If anyone said to me ‘convert or die’ I’d convert at once, I’m sorry to say. Atheists might well prefer to die! Non-belief can become a very stern religion in itself.

1.27pm GMT

margeholly asks:

What was it that lead you to become a Christian and what choices would you have made differently had you become a Christian earlier in your life?

I think we all need ritual and it’s better to spend Sunday morning acknowledging God, and praying for the sick and those ‘in any adversity’, than down the shopping mall worshipping Mammon. And I’ve always liked singing hymns. I wasn’t a Christian any earlier so I don’t know how it would have effected my choices, but no, I don’t think so. Christianity created the culture I was brought up in.

1.24pm GMT

carlabp asks:

The first short story I’ve read from you is Weekend and I still remember how we worked through the story with my English teacher. So my question is: why do you think there are still in 2015 women like Martha ( in which group I am unfortunely included) who think everything is all our concern and even allow someone to call us an anti-rose person?

Oh, blimey! I’ve always found the way to deal with criticism is to agree with the person who criticises. ‘Oh yes,me, I’m such an anti-rose person! I hate roses.’ It takes the wind out of their sails. There are still people like Martha in 2015 because the world so desperately needs Marthas and in certain situations yes, everything is indeed your concern. If it wasn’t for you everything would fall to bits. You sound like a very good nice person to me and I bet you’re more appreciated than you think.

1.16pm GMT

philwoodford asks:

I recall that you were the advertising copywriter behind the slogan ‘go to work on an egg’. Do you think this type of persuasive commercial writing is somewhat under-rated? Or was it something you were glad to put behind you?

Advertising is very effective. Consumers are not all that sensible, and if you say something often enough they tend to believe you. As a copywriter I learned to use my persuasive skills selling products, until I realised that I could use them just as well to sell ideas and I would be better occupied.

1.11pm GMT

ID1566298 says:

I would like to thank you for your comments some years ago on the raw deal men were getting from the feminist backlash which affected many decent men who respected women but found themselves lumped in with the mysoginists. Your understanding of the crisis of masculinity was appreciated in its breadth of scope.

Thank you for that. I think that crisis still exists, I think women underestimate their power to humiliate men and make them feel worthless (all men have mothers, after all). But it’s getting a bit better. Every second TV commercial isn’t about a stupid ugly man and a canny beautiful bird.

1.06pm GMT

lily321 also asks:

I see myself as a feminist but often have difficulty explaining what one is? Can you offer a useful description ? Or should we just invent a new word altogether and start again?

I think feminists need to create a world where a girl child is as welcome and valuable as a boy child. We don’t achieve this by scowling or snarling at men. If ‘feminism’ as a word has got itself a bad image, we have only ourselves to blame. You could always say ‘I’m a feminist – but in a good way!’

1.03pm GMT

Fay is now answering your questions live – starting with this from lily321:

What advertising slogan would you write if you had to sell yourself?

Reada Weldon Booka Day!
or
Go to Work on a Weldon!
come instantly to mind. Thanks.

4.52pm GMT

Some of the short stories in Fay Weldon’s new collection, Mischief, stretch back 50 years, right to the start of her career when she was writing copy for adverts. Working with brilliantly economical slogans like “go to work on an egg”, she was soon taking on almost any literary form, from radio plays to TV scripts to journalism. And of course novels: the classic likes of Puffball and The Life and Loves of a She-Devil feature battles of the sexes whose wars still haven’t been won today. It’s all stemmed from a rich life, with numerous marriages, a late conversion to Christianity, and the teaching of hundreds of students in the craft of writing.

And as a new interview with the Guardian shows, her spark is undimmed as she takes on the big social questions. On sex: “We’re sedated by sex, by oxytocin. The only time women are really themselves is when they have PMT, and turn into people who are vile, nasty and mean.” On religion: “I find atheism infinitely depressing.” And at a time when women seem assailed by contradictory messages of how to live, she reminds us that it used to be worse still: “When I began, women needed to be taught the truth about love, babies, money, men. They seemed to know so little and be fed so many misapprehensions.”

Continue reading...

Tight young things: F Scott Fitzgerald’s tips on how to save money

The author of The Great Gatsby is not known for his restraint. But what can we learn from his suggestions of how to tighten the purse strings?

This is a frugal time of year for many of us, so I feel indebted to Scribner Magazine this morning for posting a wonderful extract from F Scott Fitzgerald’s autobiography in which the Gatsby author describes his own attempts to live on a budget.

Part of a series of pieces marking the 90th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby, it is genuinely funny and charming, as the author and his wife, Zelda, attempt to work out why they are unable to account for $1,000 a month.

Continue reading...

Where are all the grandparents in modern fiction?

After writing a novel about a grandmother, I found an audience desperate to see themselves represented

Considering how important grandparents are in many modern families - plugging the gaps and picking up the pieces when the stresses and strains on working parents get too much - isn’t it surprising that we don’t find more of them in contemporary fiction?

There is of course no shortage of memorable grandparents in children’s literature, beaming benignly – or occasionally malevolently – from the bookshelves: from the four grandparents in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, via Grannie Island and Granma Mainland in Mairi Hedderwick’s Katie Morag series to David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny, grandparents seem a far richer source of inspiration than boring old parents.

Continue reading...

Which books are you planning to read next? Show us your TBR pile

As we approach a million followers on Twitter, we’re celebrating with a series on our favourite books. After our earliest reading memories, classics and book gifts, we’ve moved on to to-be-read piles and the pleasure of discussing them. We’ve narrowed it down to the next three books we’re planning to read, although not everyone respected that ... What are yours? Let us know in the comments or on the hashtag #booksamillion. Not sure what to tackle first? Perhaps your fellow readers can help you decide

Follow the #booksamillion conversation on Twitter, with new topics every day Continue reading...

Happier ever after? JK Rowling’s Casual Vacancy joins league of rewritten stories

As the BBC gives Rowling’s adult novel an upbeat ending, we look at other rewrites, from The Little Mermaid to A Clockwork Orange

The BBC has injected a small slice of redemption into the bleak ending of JK Rowling’s first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, for its miniseries adaptation, produced with HBO. Screenwriter Sarah Phelps told the Radio Times: “It’s still heartbreaking, but I had to find some kind of redemptive moment at the end, that sense that after the tragedy, someone gets to stand with a slightly straighter back.”

Rowling’s story of the dark underbelly of an English town is not the first to be given a good shakedown by screenwriters. We won’t know how Phelps’s version matches up to the novel until 15 February, when its first episode airs, but here’s our selection of five screen versions that failed to stick to the original story.

Continue reading...

Caribou Island: where speech marks have gone extinct

Quotations marks, like in many recent years, have gone awol in this month’s Reading Group choice, David Vann’s Caribou Island. Does it free prose up to reach poetic heights, or is it harmful tinkering?

“You do know something,” said James Ellroy when speaking to David Vann at the London Review Bookshop a few months ago. “You are a knowledgeable motherfucker. But you don’t use quotation marks. Which invalidates your career – and your life.”

I suspect these words may chime with a few contributors on last week’s Reading Group thread. One of the very first posts came from MythicalMagpie who asked:

Continue reading...

Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?

Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them

Read more Tips, links and suggestions blogs

Welcome to this week’s blog. Here’s a roundup of your comments and photos from last week.

conedison discussed the pleasures and pitfals of poetic prose:

Leonard Cohen was already an award-winning poet before becoming a songwriter, but he also wrote two novels. I remember reading his Beautiful Losers many years ago and being transported by certain passages. Also in David Guterson’s Snow Falling On Cedars (which I was not crazy about), I remember thinking that some of his paragraphs were so serenely poetic that perhaps he’d chosen the wrong genre in which to express himself. Now for only the third time I’ve read truly poetic prose in Takashi Hiraide’s The Guest Cat. The writing is rice-paper delicate as if every word was written with an ostrich feather. Cat lover or no, it’s a sweet read.

The writing in The Guest Cat is rice-paper delicate as if every word was written with an ostrich feather

Interesting question, actually. For me there are two kinds of fiction: fiction that entertains me passively much as watching a baseball game or a movie does, and fiction that rewards closer attention and therefore demands, if not work, at least a certain kind of concentration that I don’t always feel like investing. What I find interesting is the way most people who sometimes enjoy passive entertainment seem to find authors they like and other authors who leave them cold (or worse) without thinking about it, almost as if their taste in light fiction is a part of their nature.

Three chapters in and bells are ringing. Seems I read part of Americana in short story form in the Guardian Review Book of Short Stories last year. Living up to expectations so far.

Sent via GuardianWitness

By goodyorkshirelass

8 February 2015, 12:34

Absolutely wonderful writing style. I keep being surprised by the unusual turn of phrase. Delightful!

I think you’re fortunate when that happens – a sort of love affair. I’ve come closest in the last couple of years with Angela Carter. I love the way that she pulls the floor from under me. I want to understand how her head works. But I’m reading her very slowly, she’s such strong meat. I also loved the cool clarity of Alice Munro’s writing which I read for the first time last year. I will be going back to her.

“What makes a good story?” I asked my friend. She then recommended this book to me. I found it at my local library and just love its weathered cover. There are some great stories in here, and just what I needed to read to feel inspired.

Continue reading...

Fay Weldon webchat – post your questions now

The prolific novelist is publishing a career-spanning short story collection, Mischief – and will be answering your questions in a webchat from 1pm GMT on Wednesday 11 February. Post yours in the comments below

4.52pm GMT

Some of the short stories in Fay Weldon’s new collection, Mischief, stretch back 50 years, right to the start of her career when she was writing copy for adverts. Working with brilliantly economical slogans like “go to work on an egg”, she was soon taking on almost any literary form, from radio plays to TV scripts to journalism. And of course novels: the classic likes of Puffball and The Life and Loves of a She-Devil feature battles of the sexes whose wars still haven’t been won today. It’s all stemmed from a rich life, with numerous marriages, a late conversion to Christianity, and the teaching of hundreds of students in the craft of writing.

And as a new interview with the Guardian shows, her spark is undimmed as she takes on the big social questions. On sex: “We’re sedated by sex, by oxytocin. The only time women are really themselves is when they have PMT, and turn into people who are vile, nasty and mean.” On religion: “I find atheism infinitely depressing.” And at a time when women seem assailed by contradictory messages of how to live, she reminds us that it used to be worse still: “When I began, women needed to be taught the truth about love, babies, money, men. They seemed to know so little and be fed so many misapprehensions.”

Continue reading...

Which is the best book you've ever been given as a present?

As we approach one million followers on Twitter, we’re hosting themed literary conversations on Guardian Books. On Friday we talked book gifts – from treasured titles from grandparents, to impromptu presents that have stayed in readers’ memories, here is a selection. Join the conversation in the comments or on the hashtag #booksamillion

Follow the #booksamillion conversation on Twitter, with new topics every day

We’re in a party mood on Guardian Books: our Twitter account is approaching one million followers, after four years of fascinating conversations with an engaged and passionate community. To mark the occasion, we’re exchanging literary tips, memories and anecdotes on the social network. After the first reads we could remember and our favourite classics, today we’re talking literary gifts. Here is a selection of our readers’ contributions – add your own, either in the comments below, or on #booksamillion.

I was given Uncle for Christmas when I was 6. It still gets dusted off for a read once a year. #booksamillion pic.twitter.com/PRjUppNLLP

Beautiful story & illustrations Much-treasured gift from parents Great dedication too! @GuardianBooks #booksamillion pic.twitter.com/2eVXDp7L4B

My girlfriend (now my wife) gave me Goodbye to Berlin when I was 19. I've read it at least 25 times #booksamillion pic.twitter.com/KVfVMPkE8l

My grandfather's birthday present from his parents in 1898. Given to me in 1996 - in precious pieces #booksamillion pic.twitter.com/ZxJ20pAAeo

@carmitstead My great-grandmother's Unto This Last, Ruskin's economics lectures. She was 11. "From Father to Thelma" pic.twitter.com/Z1OefPWRMc

@carmitstead @GuardianBooks 1907 Alice's Adventures... Bought for my grandmother in the 30s. 2 pages covered in blood pic.twitter.com/bPQbwv6V3C

@nationalbook @GuardianBooks (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) signed my late father http://t.co/vPpafIr3BA pic.twitter.com/pYXpkonpYm

Best book I've been given was a copy of Wind in the willows given to me as a child by my grandad. So precious #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks Wind in the Willows w/Michael Hague illustrations, given me age 6-7. V happy memories of Dad reading it to me #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks Dad's copy of Eliot. Bought year before he went to Bletchley. 1st codes I ever wanted to crack. pic.twitter.com/KDd6Wvfa9h

@GuardianBooks Trinity by Leon Uris. My grandma gave it to me when I was 14 & it made me fall in love with Ireland, which I love to this day

My dad never gave random presents. But one day when I was 9 or 10 Joyce's Pomes Penyeach turned up in my bedroom #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks Lovely hardback editions of Lord of the Rings my dad gave me when I was 13. They set my imagination on fire. Still have them.

@GuardianBooks #booksamillion Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. Highschool librarian handed me it when I was 16. Every read through is different

@GuardianBooks Sylvia Plath's collected poems. Given to me at a party. Kept on leaving the party to run upstairs and read it. #booksamillion

Sometimes the best gifts are the + unexpected, as was receiving this collection of stories I treasure #booksamillion pic.twitter.com/kM0XkWX2vq

@GuardianBooks #booksamillion Working by Studs Terkel was the ideal graduation present / reality check. pic.twitter.com/SVC4rlGzXi

@GuardianBooks Beautiful Losers was perfect for a midwinter Greyhound trip Vancouver to Montreal in the very beat early 90s #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks Infinite Jest! Best gift cause I didn't want to read it until I felt obligated and now I think it's brilliant #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks An old copy of Goodbye to Berlin with a pulp cover. Nice that it made a friend think of me enough to buy it! #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. My mum loaned her copy to me and I fell in love with Middle Earth. Devoured the book & wanted more

@GuardianBooks my aunt and uncle gave me Dickens' A Christmas Carol when I was 10 #booksamillion got me hooked on the classics!

@GuardianBooks #booksamillion Walter Benton's This Is My Beloved. Flawless poetry. Given to me by a friend while living in France, 1998/99.

@GuardianBooks Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Because we all go through that spiritual/existential crisis at some point #booksamillion

Aged 9, was given Swallows and Amazons to keep me quiet at a wedding. Preferred reading to weddings ever since. #booksamillion

Best book given to me was Percival Pea and Polly Pomegranate by Jayne Fisher - by my newborn baby sister when I was two #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks Uncle Tom's Cabin, given to me by my Nan as my 1st "grown up" book, an original & tatty with yellow pages #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks most magical was the Queen of Romania's The Lost Princess from Granny.Hopelessly entranced by its quirky quest #booksamillion

@GuardianBooks Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, my Granddad`s copy from 1911. I identified myself fully with Huck Finn for years.

@GuardianBooks #booksamillion A teacher gave me Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye'. Blew apart my tiny mind. Forever grateful.

@GuardianBooks was given Possession by AS Byatt on a blind date because our meeting fell on my birthday! He got a 2nd date. #booksamillion

Continue reading...

Celebrate National Libraries Day with #libraryshelfies – in pictures

Today is National Libraries Day in the UK, and we’re celebrating with a gorgeous display of some of the library “shelfies” that have inundated social media, after the New York Public Library started the trend. We asked librarians and bookworms around the world to join the online party, and here are some of our favourite pictures

•And here are some shelfies we made earlier

Continue reading...