I completed all these, for the book Nanoscience: Giants of the Infinitesimal (co-written with the sculptor Tom Grimsey, to be published by Papadakis in April), just in time for Christmas. I then experienced the genuine Virginia Woolf moment, falling with Woolfian fury on the rediscovered novel Stoner, by John Williams. Highly recommended by Julian Barnes in a recent Guardian article, it is the kind of novel that Philip Larkin might have written, had he continued with fiction after his two early works. Not exactly a cheery seasonal read, then, but the kind of book that makes you re-examine your life.
For me, the most memorable thing Virgina Woolf ever wrote was: “You can't think with what fury we fall on printed matter, so long denied us by our writing!” It is an inevitable irony that the writing of books, which began in the delight we experienced in reading them, comes to make the pleasure of reading impossible during the most intense phases of writing. With illustrated non-fiction the last stages are especially inimical to surrendering to the pleasures of the text: proofreading, fact-checking, writing captions, fixing layout problems, compiling the index, acknowledgements, picture credits, further reading.
I completed all these, for the book Nanoscience: Giants of the Infinitesimal (co-written with the sculptor Tom Grimsey, to be published by Papadakis in April), just in time for Christmas. I then experienced the genuine Virginia Woolf moment, falling with Woolfian fury on the rediscovered novel Stoner, by John Williams. Highly recommended by Julian Barnes in a recent Guardian article, it is the kind of novel that Philip Larkin might have written, had he continued with fiction after his two early works. Not exactly a cheery seasonal read, then, but the kind of book that makes you re-examine your life. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm a writer whose interests include the biological revolution happening now, the relationship between art and science, jazz, and the state of the planet Archives
March 2016
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