Thursday 26 March 2015

A Curious Friendship (sneak preview)

I'm going to be writing about it more fully in the next issue of Shiny New Books, but (since today is publication day for this book) I thought I had to bring A Curious Friendship by Anna Thomasson to your attention. Especially since I saw her give a lovely talk about it at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday, to a gratifyingly large number of people.

Why gratifyingly large? Because the people A Curious Friendship is about aren't really household names. It's a biography of the friendship between Edith Olivier and Rex Whistler. Now, a lot of my blog readers will know who they are, and may have read Olivier's glorious 1927 novel The Love-Child (which I wrote about in my DPhil at length) - but perhaps won't know much else.

Thomasson's book takes us from their meeting, when Olivier was in her early 50s and grieving her beloved sister, and Whistler was a 19 year old art student newly arrived in a Bright Young Thing set. Their friendship would last two decades, and encompass many achievements and emotions. And A Curious Friendship is a really, really excellent book. Whether or not you're interested in them, you can't help but be impressed by the compelling way Thomasson tells their story, and the way she brings two quite different trajectories into one whole. As she said in the talk, it is neither about Olivier nor about Whistler, but about a third entity: the two of them together.

As I say, my full review will be out soon - but don't wait til then; go and grab a copy. It's a real delight, and an emotionally involving one (I cried a bit, not gonna lie). My one hope now is that Thomasson will be allowed (and willing) to edit a collection of their letters. Please.

9 comments:

  1. Sounds lovely -- and great that you saw her in person.

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  2. Sounds marvelous, I hope it will get a US edition.

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    1. Fingers crossed! I don't know if they have any plans at the moment, but it would be worth shipping over...

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  3. You've caught my interest, but like Lory, I'm wondering if we'll get it over here?

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    1. I really hope so! If it does well here, perhaps it will?

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  4. I'm very keen on tracking down this one Simon, as I love Whistler's illustrations - looking forward to your full review! :)

    kaggsysbookishramblings

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    1. He was such a fascinating person. Please do grab a copy :)

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  5. Ooh - must get this must get this must get this!

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