The book of the moment . . .

. . . or so it would seem.

Last year, when I was following a literature course, we read a book by Sylvia Townsend Warner, who was writing in the 1920s to 1950s . The book we read was ‘Mr Fortune’s Maggot’ - a strange but compelling book. Our tutor said at the time that we should read ‘The Corner That Held Them’. I made a note but then forgot about it . . .

. . . until it started getting mentioned everywhere. Several Blippers have read it/ are reading it. So I got a copy and I love it.

Published in 1948, what a strange but utterly compelling book.

“The nuns who enter a convent in medieval Norfolk are told to renounce the world, but the world still finds ways to trouble them. . . “

And that’s about it. It has no plot, things just happen. People come and go and more things happen. More people come and go and more things happen. Concerned that you can’t remember which Nun is which, you soon realise it doesn’t matter.

It is socially aware - definitely, but subtly, left wing, even Marxist. And so funny. A brilliant book. (I love the cover - it sort of captures the book in one image.)

(Thanks Veronica for the reference to Backlisted - excellent discussion.)