Her Brilliant Career. Rachel Cooke. Very interesting read.
Quote:
“In her apron and rubber gloves, a smile lipsticked permanently across her face, the woman of the Fifties has become a cultural symbol of all that we are most grateful to have sloughed off.
But what if there was another side to the story?
In this book Rachel Cooke tells the story of ten extraordinary women whose pioneering professional lives - and complicated private lives - paved the way for future generations. Muriel Box, film director. Betty Box, film producer. Margery Fish, plantswoman. Patience Grey, cook. Alison Smithson, architect. Sheila van Damm, rally car driver and theatre owner. Nancy Spain, journalist and radio personality. Joan Werner Laurie, editor. Jacquetta Hawkes, archaeologist. Rose Heilbron, QC.”
and
Britain Etc. Mark Easton
Quote:
“This is a quiet bombshell of a book. From its pastel cover and serviceable title we are misdirected into expecting another Brysoneque tour of the nation replete with sketches of village cricket greens and extravagant hats at Ascot. (Sigh). Yet behind Mark Easton's calm, non-judgmental and no-nonsense A to Z tour of current Britain (A is for Alcohol; B is for Bobbie) is a more factual and edgier narrative.
His reporter's instinct for a story runs to the counter-intuitive leading to a series of fascinating revelations: alcohol's connection to violence is due to societal conditioning; families are happier now than any time in the last 50 years; there has been no knife crime epidemic; and, my favourite, the mighty dachshund is the most vicious dog of all, the pit bull way down the charts.
Easton charts eloquently how public hysteria (often fuelled by the media) forces politicians to act, whether the hysteria is justified or not. To not act immediately, to counsel caution, is to risk your political hide.
As a BBC reporter covering the false media circus of alleged crises in knife crime or vicious dogs or the Soham murders Easton has no doubt been forced to go with the news flow. So here is a strong sense of putting the record straight. His best chapter is Y is for Youth, an eloquent, almost incandescent look at how the country has failed its youth. E is for Edgier?”