Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "p-g"
Light Reading
Light reading is something I do all year round. When the world is being especially grim, as it is right now, then that’s the time to turn to books that help you escape.
I was not surprised the sales of Wodehouse rocked up during the pandemic. People need an escape and lighter reading can be a great way to have that escape. (Especially if you really can’t go anywhere to get that escape another way!).
Light reading for me also includes reading short stories and flash collections, no matter what their theme. I just love short reads (and getting plenty of value for money by having lots of stories in one book!).
I do wish genre fiction wasn’t looked down on by some. It is snobbery.
Genre fiction helps subsidize the more literary works and everyone has different tastes in books anyway.
I was not surprised the sales of Wodehouse rocked up during the pandemic. People need an escape and lighter reading can be a great way to have that escape. (Especially if you really can’t go anywhere to get that escape another way!).
Light reading for me also includes reading short stories and flash collections, no matter what their theme. I just love short reads (and getting plenty of value for money by having lots of stories in one book!).
I do wish genre fiction wasn’t looked down on by some. It is snobbery.
Genre fiction helps subsidize the more literary works and everyone has different tastes in books anyway.
Books Of Letters
I love books of letters. I have books of letters by Evelyn Waugh (his own and those he exchanged with Nancy Mitford) and P.G. Wodehouse on my shelves (real and electronic). Yes, the letters do shed insights into the writing life which are fascinating and useful.
I also have a book of letters by Jane Austen and I must finish reading that so this post has proved useful in reminding me to do so!
I do so wish Agatha Christie had done this though. Am sure her letters would have been insightful. Having said that her The Moving Finger does have its plot focus around a string of poison pen letters so she brought them into her fiction at least!
What I like about letters are they do show something of the writer and the recipient. I’ve made use of this as a wiring technique in my Punish The Innocent (From Light to Dark and Back Again).
Good fun to do and it makes for a freshing change of story format but one I think best done sparingly. You do have to have strong characters to carry this off successfully.
Maybe that is why more writers haven’t produced books of their letters. They would rather get their characters to show you something of themselves rather than of the writers themselves.
What do you think?
I also have a book of letters by Jane Austen and I must finish reading that so this post has proved useful in reminding me to do so!
I do so wish Agatha Christie had done this though. Am sure her letters would have been insightful. Having said that her The Moving Finger does have its plot focus around a string of poison pen letters so she brought them into her fiction at least!
What I like about letters are they do show something of the writer and the recipient. I’ve made use of this as a wiring technique in my Punish The Innocent (From Light to Dark and Back Again).
Good fun to do and it makes for a freshing change of story format but one I think best done sparingly. You do have to have strong characters to carry this off successfully.
Maybe that is why more writers haven’t produced books of their letters. They would rather get their characters to show you something of themselves rather than of the writers themselves.
What do you think?
Author Anniversaries - P.G. Wodehouse
Often when we think about author anniversaries, we’re commemorating the birth, sometimes the death, of globally renowned authors such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens etc.
Or it can be the anniversary of when one of their most famous books was first published, you know the kind of thing here.
But 2025 sees a strange author anniversary for one writer and where the events took place within weeks of each other.
In early 1975 the wonderful humorous author, P.G Wodehouse was finally knighted. In February 2025, sadly he died. So this year sees the 50th anniversary of these things and the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) has been commemorating these. (I’m a member).
I love Wodehouse’s way with the English language. It is simply brilliant and his characters live on in your head long after you’ve finished reading the stories.
I even like Wodehouse’s golf stories and I hate the game as I do see it as a good walk ruined! There aren’t many writers who could achieve making someone read about a subject they are really not keen on. Even fewer can make them enjoy it!
Wodehouse’s characters live on in the forms of Jeeves and Wooster, Lord Emsworth, Uncle Fred, and so many more.
There are some books of letters out written by the great man too and they’re well worth a read as they’re a fascinating insight into the writing life he enjoyed.
You also get to see his wartime controversy from his viewpoint (and I would add had the Nazis got irony at the time Wodehouse would have been in real trouble. Check out the reproductions of his radio speeches which caused so much trouble and you will see what I mean).
But above all check out his stories, Especially when life is grim, and it is right now, they are a tonic and I happily recommend them just on those grounds.
Or it can be the anniversary of when one of their most famous books was first published, you know the kind of thing here.
But 2025 sees a strange author anniversary for one writer and where the events took place within weeks of each other.
In early 1975 the wonderful humorous author, P.G Wodehouse was finally knighted. In February 2025, sadly he died. So this year sees the 50th anniversary of these things and the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) has been commemorating these. (I’m a member).
I love Wodehouse’s way with the English language. It is simply brilliant and his characters live on in your head long after you’ve finished reading the stories.
I even like Wodehouse’s golf stories and I hate the game as I do see it as a good walk ruined! There aren’t many writers who could achieve making someone read about a subject they are really not keen on. Even fewer can make them enjoy it!
Wodehouse’s characters live on in the forms of Jeeves and Wooster, Lord Emsworth, Uncle Fred, and so many more.
There are some books of letters out written by the great man too and they’re well worth a read as they’re a fascinating insight into the writing life he enjoyed.
You also get to see his wartime controversy from his viewpoint (and I would add had the Nazis got irony at the time Wodehouse would have been in real trouble. Check out the reproductions of his radio speeches which caused so much trouble and you will see what I mean).
But above all check out his stories, Especially when life is grim, and it is right now, they are a tonic and I happily recommend them just on those grounds.
