It is often the way that prolific artists and authors do not receive appraisal in their own life; indeed, it may be only after the curtain call when their work becomes recognised and their character celebrated. However quite the opposite is true for one of Britain’s greatest and most controversial poets: Philip Larkin. Hailed as […]
‘Hell has descended on me’ wrote Tennessee William’s from his cot in Touro Infirmary: ‘retribution for all my misdoings and the things undone’. The celebrity playwright in 1953 had reached the crest of his misery; already suffering from psychological distress, alcoholism, gender confusion and paranoia as well as the physical agony of ‘thrombosed haemorrhoids’. William’s, […]
Scotland’s national identity has always been intertwined with art, music and most importantly, literature. From the publication of Blind Harry’s The Wallace to September 2014 by Carol Ann Duffy, lyrics of the time have shaped the idea of Scotland and vice versa. Never was this more true than in the post-war years that came to […]
With a range of diverse and thoughtful novels, Marilynne Robinson is a household name for many and somewhat of a celebrity in the literary world. Although her first book was published in 1980, Robinson spent twenty years writing non-fiction sporadically, until 2004 when she released her second novel Gilead, which won the Pulitzer Prize and […]
In the latter half of the 20th century, Brazilian art has turbulently transformed from being persecuted to being fascinating. After the cultural destruction brought about by World War Two, there rose a new global art community, one that looked further than the rigid European art tradition for inspiration. After centuries of political and economic disruption, 1950s […]