Sarah LeFanu

The Publisher Says: The companion to Sarah LeFanu's biography of Dame Rose Macaulay.

Dreaming of Rose: A Biographer’s Journal is a fascinating account of a biographical quest and of a personal journey. While working on her biography of the writer and traveller Rose Macaulay, Sarah LeFanu kept a journal that charts the details of that quest: the people she met, the places she visited, and her strange dreamworld encounters with the very subject of her biographical pursuit.

Research trips to Varazze in Italy to look for Rose’s childhood, and to Trabzon in Turkey to find traces of The Towers of Trebizond, were remarkably intuitive ventures that found treasures in unexpected places.

Dreaming of Rose is also a memoir of a woman juggling the demands of teaching, research and writing while patching together a living. LeFanu’s work on Rose was squeezed in between many other commitments and responsibilities: she wrote for the BBC and taught creative writing and English literature. Suffused with the tensions and dramas of everyday life, and the necessity for intellectual integrity, this is an important memoir of women and writing.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Do you watch the end-credits of films? Are you by nature (or nurture, can't be sure which) a completist? Is the world a maze of maddening omissions and lacunae that you *know* were worth including but simply got...left behind?

My friend, do I have a reading experience for you!

I'll begin my praise for this book with things that will cause Some Eyebrows to rise like theatre (note: misspelling intentional) curtains: 1) I am a man; 2) I am an American; and 3) I am utterly ignorant of Rose Macaulay as anything except the author of Towers of Trebizond and its utterly mesmerizing, loathsome Father Chantry-Pigg, that personification of Religion in all its malevolent, seductive self-righteousness. There was, I am now aware, a LOT more to Rose Macaulay than I ever knew.

And the weird part is that I never knew that I never knew this entire life existed. Macaulay doesn't get a lot of public mention, though goodness knows it seems she should. Author LeFanu wrote an entire biography of Macaulay (non-affiliate Kindle link), for heavens' sake! And how I wish I'd read it first....

What makes me say that about a read I'm rating four stars, you could reasonably ask. Well, it's this simple: While this is not a book about Rose Macaulay, it *is* about the author's quest for her life and doings. The fact is that Author LeFanu went down several rabbit-holes in her quest to comprehend the life of a very, in fact a notoriously, private person. Had I had a sense of Macaulay's trajectory (beyond reading a single, late work of fiction by her) I would've had a frame of reference to put the anecdotes into. The challenges of LeFanu's quest would've felt more immediate to me had I had the recent experience of learning Macaulay's life's details.

I liked the read a lot. I wanted to know what the heck was going on to cause Author LeFanu to have these specific collywobbles, so I would've benefited from reading her biography of the writer...and that is something I shall now do. I will, as I've only recently read this fascinating companion to the main book, have an even richer experience of the read.

I urge the read on anyone who thinks the conundrum of living life and making art has one correct answer.… (més)

[Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind] was published by the Women's Press in 1984. Edited and with an introduction by Jen Green and Sarah Lefanu, this collection of 17 short stories written by women is most definitely feminist, exploring themes of gender roles, reproductive choices, societal trends, science fiction gender tropes, and more. Indeed, this anthology is clearly the child of second-wave feminism. The introduction does a great job discussing representation of women in science fiction by male authors, why women want to write speculative fiction, and name checking all the big names (of women authors) from the 1950s to the 1980s. It references and builds upon the groundbreaking [Women of Wonder] anthology from 1978 (also part of my personal library).

The only authors presented here whose names I recognized were Joanna Russ, Tanith Lee, Mary Gentle, and Raccoona Sheldon. Not surprising, since the majority of the authors are British, and I'm just not familiar with British speculative fiction. Each story is prefaced by an author bio and in many cases her comments about the story and its inspiration.

ALL of the stories are interesting. "Big Operation on Altair Three" opens the collection with a satirical take on advertising, consumerism, and mature female stars, which is just as relevant today. Some are not at all subtle, such as "The Cliches from Outer Space" and "Morality Meat." Some I found kinda bizarre and will probably have to sit with for awhile ("Apples in Winter" and "Instructions for Exiting This Building in Case of Fire" and "Words" and "Relics"). I particularly enjoyed "Spinning the Green," a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite fairy tale as a child. "Atlantis 2045: no love between planets" and "The Awakening" were quite chilling dystopias. "The Intersection," "Love Alters," and "A Sun in the Attic" were very memorable visions of distant-future alternative societies. "Cyclops" connects ancient Greece with the distant future among the stars. "Mab" imagines human parthenogenesis. I found "Long Shift" charming and bittersweet in its portrayal of women using telekinesis in an industrial capacity and dedication to the public welfare.

I enjoyed the range of styles, topics, and points of view. I certainly recommend others try to find this book too.… (més)

"Introduction" by Jen Green and Sarah Lefanu;
"Big Operation on Altair Three" by Josephine Saxton;
"Spinning the Green" by Margaret Elphinstone;
"The Cliches from Outer Space" by Joanna Russ;
"The Intersection" by Gwyneth Jones (a preview of Escape Plans novel);
"Long Shift" by Beverley Ireland;
"Love Alters" by Tanith Lee;
"Cyclops" by Lannah Battley;
"Instructions for Exiting this Building in Case of Fire" by Pamela Zoline;
"A Sun in the Attic" by Mary Gentle;
"Atlantis 2045: no love between planets" by Frances Gapper;
"From a Sinking Ship" by Lisa Tuttle;
"The Awakening" by Pearlie McNeill;
"Words" by Naomi Mitchison;
"Relics" by Zoe Fairbairns; - excellent
"Mab" by Penny Casdagli;
"Morality Meat" by Raccoona Sheldon; - excellent
"Apples in Winter" by Sue Thomason.
… (més)