I am still ill, When I get better I'll be writing a piece on Judith Krantz. Share your thoughts if you have any.
Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
About me
Linda Grant is a novelist and journalist. She won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000 and the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage in 2006. She writes for the Guardian, Telegraph and Vogue. Her latest novel, The Clothes on Their Backs was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. For further information including upcoming literary festivals bookstore readings etc see her website at www.lindagrant.co.uk
My other blog
Buchmendel - some words from books
Books by Linda Grant
- The Thoughtful Dresser Non-Fiction 2009)
- For further information see www.linda.grant.co.uk
- The Clothes on Their Backs (Fiction 2008)
- The People on the Street (Winner of the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage 2006)
- Still Here (Fiction 2002)
- When I Lived in Modern Times (Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2000)
- Remind Me Who I Am Again (Non-fiction 1998)
- The Cast Iron Shore (Fiction 1996)
- Sexing the Millenium (Non-Fiction 1993)
This blog believes
'A good handbag makes the outfit.'
'Only the rich can afford cheap shoes'
'The only thing worse than being skint is looking as if you're skint.'
'A new dress is a great help in all circumstances.' (Noel Streatfeild)
'The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and his right to these peculiarities.' (Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate.)
'Only the rich can afford cheap shoes'
'The only thing worse than being skint is looking as if you're skint.'
'A new dress is a great help in all circumstances.' (Noel Streatfeild)
'The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and his right to these peculiarities.' (Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate.)
Followers
Other sites: Fashion, Literature, Politics etc
- 60 Going On 16
- A Brooklyn Lad
- An American in London
- Arts and Letters Daily
- Atlantic Monthly
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- Dave Hill's Big Britain
- Desperately Seeking Style
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- Faking Good Breeding
- Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog
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- Granta
- Guardian Books
- Guardian Fashion
- Harper's Bazaar
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- John P Matthew
- Lisa Goldman's On The Face
- Literary Review
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- Lost in a foreign language
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- Not Pop
- Off Tha Cuff
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- Prospect
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- Telegraph Fashion
- The Bag Snob
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- The Satorialist
- The Sewing Divas
- The Sunday Best
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- Times Fashion
- Une femme d'un certain age
- Vienna Vegetable Orchestra
- Vogue
- WSGN blog
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4 comments:
I think the only book of hers I've read was "Scruples" which I read in my early 20's. The themes of a year in France, weight loss and a newfound fashion sense were marvelous fantasies which struck a chord with my stocky, broke, sartorially challenged self. Marrying the old rich guys, not so much. One interesting thing in retrospect was how she seemed to understand and capture the cusp of the shift in upscale shopping from the more sedate "drawing room" type of setting to the more sensory "emporium" closer to what we know today.
Scary how much of that book I can remember having not read it for almost 30 years!
I too was struck by the year in France, the newfound fashion sense and weight loss in Scruples. I went through a phase of reading a few of her books when I was in my early teens (was a bit of an eye-opener...). I loved the madness of them and the way the women were so successful. I still remember the female heroine in whichever one is about magazines screaming about how all the women's mags were about guilt, guilt, GUILT.
I think my young self mostly loved the fantasy glamour (small town hick at the time) and the highly successful women who yes, married rich guys, but also were successful in their own right.
I read most of them when I was a teenager. I really think the women were more powerful than most women in trashy fiction, and that made them such satisfying trashy fantasies. And you always had the sense that even if they hadn't found the guy at the end they'd have been perfectly all right; that they had magazines/designer stores/vineyeards/whatever to run and basically LIFE to be getting on with.
Oh, and the sex was also the raciest thing I'd ever seen in the world! with lots of gays and lesbians and all sorts of unusual practices. Scruples introduced me to the concept of a glory hole when I was, I think, 12...
Oh yes! My gran gave me a copy of Princess Daisy when I was about 11 - she obviously hadn't read it herself as the sex scenes were astonishing. I soon raced through Scruples and Mistral's Daughter at our local library. Her descriptions of the glamour and the clothes were fantastic. Along with A Woman of Substance, they made sure I spent my early teens longing to be a ball-breaking business woman and own a chain of shops.
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