What a lovely essay, from a great writer. Thank you.
Graeme Archer
1 year ago
What a lovely essay, from a great writer. Thank you.
Steve Murray
1 year ago
The richness of a life, lived with reflective intelligence and rooted in the full scope of our civilisation, encapsulated here for our own entertainment (in its deeper sense) and enjoyment.
Clearly, Penelope is not quite done yet. This contribution to Unherd is priceless, and i sincerely hope its not her last.
Steve Murray
1 year ago
The richness of a life, lived with reflective intelligence and rooted in the full scope of our civilisation, encapsulated here for our own entertainment (in its deeper sense) and enjoyment.
Clearly, Penelope is not quite done yet. This contribution to Unherd is priceless, and i sincerely hope its not her last.
Elliott Bjorn
1 year ago
I remember once Kipling being asked when he would write another full novel – he wrote short stories and essays later, but after his last great and full novel – and I cannot remember which it was, but at the height of his career, he never did another again.
He told the person who asked that he had none left in him. He had those he wrote, and once they were put down, there were no more left in him.
I always loved that for some reason. Being a book person, and Kipling wrote some of the best, the idea that a great book was a Thing – it was a whole, and very rare, very amazing – not just something one sat down and did, but was this thing – like a great archetype, like the Great Greek Myths; existing in the creative person as a thing as if made by your life, or born in you….
If you love great books like I do it is good to think this – that they are what they are – only that person has that book in them, and it is a book – not just something they produced by mere hard work of stringing words like a brick mason laying bricks to make a wall.
I remember once hearing an interview with a writer, I think,, and I can’t remember who he was; when the interviewer said isn’t it true that everyone has a book inside him, the writer replied that maybe they do, but in most cases it should be left there.
Absolutely right!
And the same is true, only more so, for poetry. There are many who are too lazy to write a book, but are uninhibited about inflicting their doggerel on us. No statement makes my heart sink to quite the same extent as “I am a poet.” (And it’s usually “I am a poet” rather than “I write poetry.”)
Absolutely right!
And the same is true, only more so, for poetry. There are many who are too lazy to write a book, but are uninhibited about inflicting their doggerel on us. No statement makes my heart sink to quite the same extent as “I am a poet.” (And it’s usually “I am a poet” rather than “I write poetry.”)
I remember once hearing an interview with a writer, I think,, and I can’t remember who he was; when the interviewer said isn’t it true that everyone has a book inside him, the writer replied that maybe they do, but in most cases it should be left there.
Brilliant article and an inspiring comment Mr Bjorn.
Thank you unherd.
Elliott Bjorn
1 year ago
I remember once Kipling being asked when he would write another full novel – he wrote short stories and essays later, but after his last great and full novel – and I cannot remember which it was, but at the height of his career, he never did another again.
He told the person who asked that he had none left in him. He had those he wrote, and once they were put down, there were no more left in him.
I always loved that for some reason. Being a book person, and Kipling wrote some of the best, the idea that a great book was a Thing – it was a whole, and very rare, very amazing – not just something one sat down and did, but was this thing – like a great archetype, like the Great Greek Myths; existing in the creative person as a thing as if made by your life, or born in you….
If you love great books like I do it is good to think this – that they are what they are – only that person has that book in them, and it is a book – not just something they produced by mere hard work of stringing words like a brick mason laying bricks to make a wall.
J Bryant
1 year ago
I had forgotten all about Penelope Lively (oops, I hope she doesn’t read the comments section!). I’ll check my public library catalogue and see which of her books are there.
I wonder why she has stopped writing? I know she’s very old and perhaps a novel seems too daunting, but perhaps short stories could still be written for fun. I’ve met elderly people, though, who happily accept observation as their primary activity. They seem to be gradually disengaging from active life.
I’m glad the author mentioned Elizabeth Bowen. What a fine writer who is now mostly forgotten. I read her “Demon Lover” not so long ago in an anthology. Yes, it was full of exotic atmosphere even though the story was set in wartime England. She’s another writer I’ll have to revisit.
This article was a pleasant surprise.
There are so many writers who go out of fashion, but are still good, and sometimes wonderful, reads. I bought a couple of books in a charity shop recently by two writers that I’d never heard of – Barbara Pym and Rose Macaulay, and I thoughly enjoyed them both. I couldn’t resist the book by the latter writer especially; any book that has the first line: “Take my camel dear,” said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
must be worth a read.
There are so many writers who go out of fashion, but are still good, and sometimes wonderful, reads. I bought a couple of books in a charity shop recently by two writers that I’d never heard of – Barbara Pym and Rose Macaulay, and I thoughly enjoyed them both. I couldn’t resist the book by the latter writer especially; any book that has the first line: “Take my camel dear,” said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
must be worth a read.
J Bryant
1 year ago
I had forgotten all about Penelope Lively (oops, I hope she doesn’t read the comments section!). I’ll check my public library catalogue and see which of her books are there.
I wonder why she has stopped writing? I know she’s very old and perhaps a novel seems too daunting, but perhaps short stories could still be written for fun. I’ve met elderly people, though, who happily accept observation as their primary activity. They seem to be gradually disengaging from active life.
I’m glad the author mentioned Elizabeth Bowen. What a fine writer who is now mostly forgotten. I read her “Demon Lover” not so long ago in an anthology. Yes, it was full of exotic atmosphere even though the story was set in wartime England. She’s another writer I’ll have to revisit.
This article was a pleasant surprise.
Josef O
1 year ago
Spot on, books serve as fertilisers to one’s imagination. The more you read the wider it gets. But I would add also travelling. In this sense there is an old saying of chinese origin: walk ten thousand miles, read ten thousand books. The ancient greeks agree, meta hodos, the things I learn while I am on my way (from which derives the word we use today method ie met-hod). Not to mention the books you read while you are travelling.
Josef O
1 year ago
Spot on, books serve as fertilisers to one’s imagination. The more you read the wider it gets. But I would add also travelling. In this sense there is an old saying of chinese origin: walk ten thousand miles, read ten thousand books. The ancient greeks agree, meta hodos, the things I learn while I am on my way (from which derives the word we use today method ie met-hod). Not to mention the books you read while you are travelling.
susie Gilchrist
1 year ago
Thank you Penelope Lively! I am not quite as old as you but getting there and my bookshelves are the story of my life – and they include many of yours!
susie Gilchrist
1 year ago
Thank you Penelope Lively! I am not quite as old as you but getting there and my bookshelves are the story of my life – and they include many of yours!
JR Stoker
1 year ago
More articles of this quality and interest please! Wonderful
JR Stoker
1 year ago
More articles of this quality and interest please! Wonderful
Geraldine Kelley
1 year ago
I have loved Penelope Lively since her earliest writing for young people. She is priceless. Long may she continue.
Last edited 1 year ago by Geraldine Kelley
Geraldine Kelley
1 year ago
I have loved Penelope Lively since her earliest writing for young people. She is priceless. Long may she continue.
Last edited 1 year ago by Geraldine Kelley
Richard 0
1 year ago
A pleasure to read. I have never read any of Penelope Lively’s works, but always mean to – my never-ending list…It’s always interesting to see what writers other writers like to read. I’m afraid her choice of John Lanchester (The Wall was, simply, awful; but his non-fiction work is much better) and Ian McEwen (pick up a book by him, thinking it must be better than the last one I read, but no, it never is) has made me think less of her. I wish I had stopped before I got to her likes.
Richard 0
1 year ago
A pleasure to read. I have never read any of Penelope Lively’s works, but always mean to – my never-ending list…It’s always interesting to see what writers other writers like to read. I’m afraid her choice of John Lanchester (The Wall was, simply, awful; but his non-fiction work is much better) and Ian McEwen (pick up a book by him, thinking it must be better than the last one I read, but no, it never is) has made me think less of her. I wish I had stopped before I got to her likes.
Ruairi O'Leary
1 year ago
What a lovely article. And of course it helps me justify to myself why I spend so much on books, which makes it even better!
Ruairi O'Leary
1 year ago
What a lovely article. And of course it helps me justify to myself why I spend so much on books, which makes it even better!
laurence scaduto
1 year ago
“Books beget books”; I love that. I hope we hear more from Ms. Lively. And my thanks to UnHerd for introducing me to her work.
My own library (if I may be so bold; it’s mostly found books) has turned out to be a remarkable sort of dopple-ganger of my mind. I don’t write, but if I needed to leave an autobiography a simple list of titles, authors and dates would do very nicely. A description of the covers and spines would help to add some “color”. After all, even though I haven’t opened some of them in decades, the spines are an integral part of my world.
And just now it occured to me that there’s the makings of a lovely ghost story, staring down at me, just waiting to be written. Books beget…
laurence scaduto
1 year ago
“Books beget books”; I love that. I hope we hear more from Ms. Lively. And my thanks to UnHerd for introducing me to her work.
My own library (if I may be so bold; it’s mostly found books) has turned out to be a remarkable sort of dopple-ganger of my mind. I don’t write, but if I needed to leave an autobiography a simple list of titles, authors and dates would do very nicely. A description of the covers and spines would help to add some “color”. After all, even though I haven’t opened some of them in decades, the spines are an integral part of my world.
And just now it occured to me that there’s the makings of a lovely ghost story, staring down at me, just waiting to be written. Books beget…
What a lovely essay, from a great writer. Thank you.
What a lovely essay, from a great writer. Thank you.
The richness of a life, lived with reflective intelligence and rooted in the full scope of our civilisation, encapsulated here for our own entertainment (in its deeper sense) and enjoyment.
Clearly, Penelope is not quite done yet. This contribution to Unherd is priceless, and i sincerely hope its not her last.
The richness of a life, lived with reflective intelligence and rooted in the full scope of our civilisation, encapsulated here for our own entertainment (in its deeper sense) and enjoyment.
Clearly, Penelope is not quite done yet. This contribution to Unherd is priceless, and i sincerely hope its not her last.
I remember once Kipling being asked when he would write another full novel – he wrote short stories and essays later, but after his last great and full novel – and I cannot remember which it was, but at the height of his career, he never did another again.
He told the person who asked that he had none left in him. He had those he wrote, and once they were put down, there were no more left in him.
I always loved that for some reason. Being a book person, and Kipling wrote some of the best, the idea that a great book was a Thing – it was a whole, and very rare, very amazing – not just something one sat down and did, but was this thing – like a great archetype, like the Great Greek Myths; existing in the creative person as a thing as if made by your life, or born in you….
If you love great books like I do it is good to think this – that they are what they are – only that person has that book in them, and it is a book – not just something they produced by mere hard work of stringing words like a brick mason laying bricks to make a wall.
I remember once hearing an interview with a writer, I think,, and I can’t remember who he was; when the interviewer said isn’t it true that everyone has a book inside him, the writer replied that maybe they do, but in most cases it should be left there.
Absolutely right!
And the same is true, only more so, for poetry. There are many who are too lazy to write a book, but are uninhibited about inflicting their doggerel on us. No statement makes my heart sink to quite the same extent as “I am a poet.” (And it’s usually “I am a poet” rather than “I write poetry.”)
Absolutely right!
And the same is true, only more so, for poetry. There are many who are too lazy to write a book, but are uninhibited about inflicting their doggerel on us. No statement makes my heart sink to quite the same extent as “I am a poet.” (And it’s usually “I am a poet” rather than “I write poetry.”)
Brilliant article and an inspiring comment Mr Bjorn.
Thank you unherd.
I remember once hearing an interview with a writer, I think,, and I can’t remember who he was; when the interviewer said isn’t it true that everyone has a book inside him, the writer replied that maybe they do, but in most cases it should be left there.
Brilliant article and an inspiring comment Mr Bjorn.
Thank you unherd.
I remember once Kipling being asked when he would write another full novel – he wrote short stories and essays later, but after his last great and full novel – and I cannot remember which it was, but at the height of his career, he never did another again.
He told the person who asked that he had none left in him. He had those he wrote, and once they were put down, there were no more left in him.
I always loved that for some reason. Being a book person, and Kipling wrote some of the best, the idea that a great book was a Thing – it was a whole, and very rare, very amazing – not just something one sat down and did, but was this thing – like a great archetype, like the Great Greek Myths; existing in the creative person as a thing as if made by your life, or born in you….
If you love great books like I do it is good to think this – that they are what they are – only that person has that book in them, and it is a book – not just something they produced by mere hard work of stringing words like a brick mason laying bricks to make a wall.
I had forgotten all about Penelope Lively (oops, I hope she doesn’t read the comments section!). I’ll check my public library catalogue and see which of her books are there.
I wonder why she has stopped writing? I know she’s very old and perhaps a novel seems too daunting, but perhaps short stories could still be written for fun. I’ve met elderly people, though, who happily accept observation as their primary activity. They seem to be gradually disengaging from active life.
I’m glad the author mentioned Elizabeth Bowen. What a fine writer who is now mostly forgotten. I read her “Demon Lover” not so long ago in an anthology. Yes, it was full of exotic atmosphere even though the story was set in wartime England. She’s another writer I’ll have to revisit.
This article was a pleasant surprise.
There are so many writers who go out of fashion, but are still good, and sometimes wonderful, reads. I bought a couple of books in a charity shop recently by two writers that I’d never heard of – Barbara Pym and Rose Macaulay, and I thoughly enjoyed them both. I couldn’t resist the book by the latter writer especially; any book that has the first line:
“Take my camel dear,” said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
must be worth a read.
There are so many writers who go out of fashion, but are still good, and sometimes wonderful, reads. I bought a couple of books in a charity shop recently by two writers that I’d never heard of – Barbara Pym and Rose Macaulay, and I thoughly enjoyed them both. I couldn’t resist the book by the latter writer especially; any book that has the first line:
“Take my camel dear,” said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
must be worth a read.
I had forgotten all about Penelope Lively (oops, I hope she doesn’t read the comments section!). I’ll check my public library catalogue and see which of her books are there.
I wonder why she has stopped writing? I know she’s very old and perhaps a novel seems too daunting, but perhaps short stories could still be written for fun. I’ve met elderly people, though, who happily accept observation as their primary activity. They seem to be gradually disengaging from active life.
I’m glad the author mentioned Elizabeth Bowen. What a fine writer who is now mostly forgotten. I read her “Demon Lover” not so long ago in an anthology. Yes, it was full of exotic atmosphere even though the story was set in wartime England. She’s another writer I’ll have to revisit.
This article was a pleasant surprise.
Spot on, books serve as fertilisers to one’s imagination. The more you read the wider it gets. But I would add also travelling. In this sense there is an old saying of chinese origin: walk ten thousand miles, read ten thousand books. The ancient greeks agree, meta hodos, the things I learn while I am on my way (from which derives the word we use today method ie met-hod). Not to mention the books you read while you are travelling.
Spot on, books serve as fertilisers to one’s imagination. The more you read the wider it gets. But I would add also travelling. In this sense there is an old saying of chinese origin: walk ten thousand miles, read ten thousand books. The ancient greeks agree, meta hodos, the things I learn while I am on my way (from which derives the word we use today method ie met-hod). Not to mention the books you read while you are travelling.
Thank you Penelope Lively! I am not quite as old as you but getting there and my bookshelves are the story of my life – and they include many of yours!
Thank you Penelope Lively! I am not quite as old as you but getting there and my bookshelves are the story of my life – and they include many of yours!
More articles of this quality and interest please! Wonderful
More articles of this quality and interest please! Wonderful
I have loved Penelope Lively since her earliest writing for young people. She is priceless. Long may she continue.
I have loved Penelope Lively since her earliest writing for young people. She is priceless. Long may she continue.
A pleasure to read. I have never read any of Penelope Lively’s works, but always mean to – my never-ending list…It’s always interesting to see what writers other writers like to read. I’m afraid her choice of John Lanchester (The Wall was, simply, awful; but his non-fiction work is much better) and Ian McEwen (pick up a book by him, thinking it must be better than the last one I read, but no, it never is) has made me think less of her. I wish I had stopped before I got to her likes.
A pleasure to read. I have never read any of Penelope Lively’s works, but always mean to – my never-ending list…It’s always interesting to see what writers other writers like to read. I’m afraid her choice of John Lanchester (The Wall was, simply, awful; but his non-fiction work is much better) and Ian McEwen (pick up a book by him, thinking it must be better than the last one I read, but no, it never is) has made me think less of her. I wish I had stopped before I got to her likes.
What a lovely article. And of course it helps me justify to myself why I spend so much on books, which makes it even better!
What a lovely article. And of course it helps me justify to myself why I spend so much on books, which makes it even better!
“Books beget books”; I love that. I hope we hear more from Ms. Lively. And my thanks to UnHerd for introducing me to her work.
My own library (if I may be so bold; it’s mostly found books) has turned out to be a remarkable sort of dopple-ganger of my mind. I don’t write, but if I needed to leave an autobiography a simple list of titles, authors and dates would do very nicely. A description of the covers and spines would help to add some “color”. After all, even though I haven’t opened some of them in decades, the spines are an integral part of my world.
And just now it occured to me that there’s the makings of a lovely ghost story, staring down at me, just waiting to be written. Books beget…
“Books beget books”; I love that. I hope we hear more from Ms. Lively. And my thanks to UnHerd for introducing me to her work.
My own library (if I may be so bold; it’s mostly found books) has turned out to be a remarkable sort of dopple-ganger of my mind. I don’t write, but if I needed to leave an autobiography a simple list of titles, authors and dates would do very nicely. A description of the covers and spines would help to add some “color”. After all, even though I haven’t opened some of them in decades, the spines are an integral part of my world.
And just now it occured to me that there’s the makings of a lovely ghost story, staring down at me, just waiting to be written. Books beget…