Kate Taylor's Blog

Zelda and the challenge of historical fiction

I was disappointed by Z: A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. These are my thoughts on why historical fiction has got to do better than this.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/arts/boo...

Hilary Mantel and the Duchess of Cambridge

Author Hilary Mantel caused a stir in Britain's tabloid press when she observed that the innocuous Duchess of Cambridge seemed hand-made for her royal role. Here's my defence of her accurate observation that the royal body is treated as public property.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/c...

Her original essay is excellent; a honest look at the royal image and the royal person -- not just Kate Middleton but also Diana, Marie Antoinette and Anne Boleyn. It also includes some interesting info about both Henry VII's and Anne Boleyn's health.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/hilary-m...

Richard III and Josephine Tey

Have you read The Daughter of Time? It's a great historical detective yarn by Josephine Tey. Published in 1951, but still relevant for what it has to say about the way history can be manipulated. I was reminded of it by the confirmation that the bones in Leicester to belong to Richard III.

Here's more

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/b...

James Joyce in Toronto

A Canadian relation of Joyce's great patron, Harriet Shaw Weaver, has unearthed an old copy of an early excerpt of Ulysses.

See this link for my story in the Globe ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/b...


or meet blogger Michael Sherman, a passionate reader of Joyce ...

http://myjourneywithjamesjoyce.blogsp...

White wine and a novel

Why are the members of book clubs usually women? I read Belinda Jack's The Woman Reader to find out. She's great on the history of female literacy but not much given to speculating on current differences between men's and women's reading.

My thoughts:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/b...

Historical fiction debate

I have always argued that a novelist can borrow from history and make up whatever bits she wants: that's why it says "a novel" on the cover. The point is to create a world that is believable and satisfying to the fiction reader, not write history. I have found, however, that readers may feel the historical record is set in stone and must be respected even in fiction. Who better to debate the issue than Philippa Gregory, who has written numerous novels based on the lives of Tudor and Plantagenet women, and Wayne Johnston, whose new novel, A World Elsewhere, includes a fictionalized version of the Vanderbilts. Here's the debate:






http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/a...

Will the e-book change writing?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/a...

Some believe the experience of reading on a tablet or e-reader is different enough from that of a book that storytelling itself will actually change, making narrative shorter and more direct. Others think the e-book is just "paper under glass" and believe real literary experimentation will take place on line. My Globe and Mail piece on the issue ....