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Paul Burston
- Apr 16
- 4 min
Lockdown Bookclub – Valley of the Dolls
In the ’60s, her name was synonymous with all things hip and swinging. Her fashion sense was imitated by millions. And on the day Preside
A former actress and model who favoured Pucci stretch tops, enormous black wigs and false eyelashes, Susann turned to writing in a desperate bid for fame. Diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44, she wrote in her diary on Christmas Day 1962: “I can’t die without leaving something. Something big. I think I can write. Let me live to ma
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Paul Burston
- Apr 13
- 2 min
Lockdown Bookclub – A Place Called Winter
My last post about EM Forster and Maurice got me thinking about another much-loved, more recent read. Published in 2015 and shortlisted f
Shortly afterwards, we meet Harry Cane as a younger man – orphaned but comfortably off, with a nervous disposition and a speech impediment. His closest companion is his younger brother, though the two aren’t remotely alike. For gregarious Jack, life is one big boy’s own adventure. For stammering Harry, it’s a minefield of potential embarr
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Paul Burston
- Apr 9
- 4 min
Lockdown Bookclub – Ziggyology
‘I never thought I’d need so many people’ - Five Years I’m writing this during the third week of lockdown and the fourth week since we de
‘It is difficult to find a bright moment in 1972,’ the historian Christopher Lee wrote in This Sceptred Isle. History tells us that it was a year of mass unemployment, strikes, blackouts and the declaration of a state of emergency. A bit like the year we’re living through now. Still, Lee was wrong. There was a bright moment in 1972. It was
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