#Penelope Lively

[nobeerreviews]

And in another year everything will be different yet again. It is always like that, and always will be; you are forever standing on the brink, in a place where you cannot see ahead; there is nothing of which to be certain except what lies behind. This should be terrifying, but somehow it is not.

-- Penelope Lively

(Bistrița, Romania)

[hillwoodhouse]

[minipliny]

Penelope Lively, Metamorphosis

Only Penelope Lively could write a short story where a house is haunted but the striving middle class couple are so prostrate with envy at the upper middle class couple's Aga and Le Creuset set that they completely fail to notice this. This is a compliment, by the way!

Metamorphosis is a set of short stories from across Penelope Lively's career; she's such a graceful and funny author at times - and has written children's stories - but she also has such a satirical lightness of touch. My two absolutely favourites are "A Long Night at Abu Simbel" and "The Slovenian Giantess" which both deal with the unravelling of a certain type of Englishness.

In A Long Night at Abu Simbel the leader of a tour group just gets completely fed up of their behaviour and abandons them at a temple; they spend overnight at the airport. The group dynamics, the atmosphere, the tension are all so funny to me, in that everyone in their own way expects the world to cater to them and suddenly have to realise that it doesn't always; I read this story when I was about nine and still remember it.

In The Slovenian Giantess, an English writer in the Balkans goes through her literary conference and visit still treating everyone and everything at a reserve, as though they are the picturesque locals who have to deal with the vicissitudes of conflict and life and she is completely removed from them, until her situation changes. It's a different kind of rude awakening to a Long Night At Abu Simbel, but it still creates a miniature with a lot of resonance, as well as a brilliantly paced story.

[kunstmull]

70s Childhood Starter Pack

Your generation grew up reading H*rry Sodding P*tter but my generation grew up reading THIS

No wonder we all grew up and got into Folk Horror

[elegantzombielite]

"We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of idle chatter we preserve Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norse: we carry a museum inside our heads, each day we commemorate peoples of whom we have never heard."

Penelope Lively, writer (b. 17th March 1933)

[biboocat]

My Penelope Lively collection.

[waltricia]

The boy simply cannot catch a break.

[postersbykeith]

[linusjf]

Penelope Lively: Walking lexicons

“We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of idle chatter we preserve Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norse: we carry a museum inside our heads, each day we commemorate peoples of whom we have never heard.” —Penelope Lively.

[ubiubiquitous]

Jim and the New Zealander are in uniform - the ubiquitous perfunctory uniform of corduroy trousers, battle-dress jacket and overcoat.

[light-of-dove]

You are not, as you think, omniscient. You did not know everything; you certainly do not know me. You judge and pronounce; you are ‘never wrong’. I do not argue with you. I simply watch you, knowing what I know. Knowing what you do not know.

Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Heat Wave | Author: Penelope Lively | Publisher: Penguin (2018)

[magpiepoet]

One summer’s day rolls into the next, indistinguishable days in which it is light still at ten o’clock, then the sky starts to drain and within a short while is a strange dark electric blue, and the trees and hedges are shadows in a monochrome landscape.

Heatwave by Penelope Lively 

[kaggsy59]

"...how will I know that what I remember is what actually happened?" #penelopelively #goingback

Back in my early twenties, I went through a phase of exploring many of the children’s books I’d somehow managed to miss when I was growing up. I spent much of my early reading years absorbed in Enid Blyton, and then the Narnia books and The Lord of the Rings as I hit early teens. But there were a good number of more contemporary works I managed to miss, wonderful titles like “Charlotte…

[lostinthemazewiththehallows]

cannot even begin to describe how much i love the historical inaccuracy in bridgerton this season- they’ve just fully leaned into it. the hair, the outfits, philippa featheringtons lush tan, i can’t get enough thank you!

i LOVE a silly romance - i don’t CARE about historical accuracy, i like pretty colours and happy couples

so WHAT the napoleonic war was supposed to be going on- NOBODY CARES! :D

[livelovecaliforniadreams]