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conversations

conversations

WAITING FOR T. S. ELIOT

January 3, 2020

t s eliot HARPERS-BAZAAR-UK-3I met T. S. Eliot yesterday darling.

I waited for him near the green door. People kept passing by me — rushing with their briefcases and handbags, their heads bent down, knowing only where they must go. I saw him coming towards me amid the crowd, slightly bent in his full suit and round-rimmed glasses. His face was still young but there was weariness in that face.

“I have been waiting for you for a long time,” I said, as he approached.

“April is the cruellest month,* breeding Continue Reading

conversations

THE QUIET PARADE

May 5, 2019

quiet parade gabriel garcia marquez Denisa-Dvorakova-by-Nicole-Bentley-for-Marie-Claire-Australia-6More than any other story in the conversations section, ‘The Quiet Parade’ will be understood by those who have read the works of Gabriel García Márquez. Those who have not read Márquez’s works yet, then darlings, what are you waiting for?

I watched the quiet parade with Gabriel García Márquez yesterday. Continue Reading

books

NOTES FROM SIDDHARTHA

August 17, 2018

Siddhartha Hermann Hesse

It has been a while since I have told you a story, hasn’t it? Life has been, well, let me just say that I have been on a journey, much as Siddhartha has been on a journey. Although, if you have read Hermann Hesse’s story already, you should know that I am in no way as wise as Siddhartha becomes in the last few chapters.

Lack of wisdom aside, ever since I read Hermann Hesse’s story, Continue Reading

books

LOVE LETTERS: RANDOLPH HENRY ASH TO CHRISTABEL LAMOTTE

March 23, 2018

Pictured: The Everyman’s Library Hardback edition of Possession by A.S.Byatt.

Last week I spent most of my days with Maud and Roland, Randolph and Christabel. You may have met them, you may not, but you can find them in a riveting little book called Possession

There are many reasons why I would recommend reading this book but this morning I was feeling romantic, so I thought I would share the most romantic letter in this novel, written by Randolph to Christabel… Continue Reading

books

HOW TO LIVE A MEANINGFUL LIFE, ACCORDING TO FRANKL

February 14, 2018

how-to-live-a-meaningful-life-victor-frankl

I spent most of the time reading Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning in my garden, as the weak winter sun warmed my bones and pink bougainvillea petals emerged slowly, rushed by no one. Despite barely mentioning the atrocities of the concentration camp, every couple of pages I would still need to look up at the clear blue sky and tell myself there was still so much goodness in this world. Continue Reading

books

READING DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S ‘MY COUSIN RACHEL’

October 17, 2017

reading daphne du maurier's 'my cousin rachel'

Dress: Suncoo Corinne Sweater Dress; Book: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier.

I think I know why Alfred Hitchcock chose Daphne Du Maurier’s The Birds to make into a movie. It must be something in her writing, in her ability to create a literary fog. Reading Daphne Du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel while on holiday in Ireland has only made the whole idea of the fog feel even more true. Continue Reading

books

JOYCE’S ‘DUBLINERS’ IS A LESSON IN HOW TO LIVE A BOLD LIFE

October 3, 2017

James-Joyce's-Dubliners-how-to-live-a-bold-life

Book: Dubliners by James Joyce; Skirt: Sold out, similar here.

There’s a recurrent theme found in the stories collected in James Joyce’s Dubliners. Joyce always adds one character who is stuck in life in one form or another. There’s Eveline, who we meet as she is sitting “at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.” There’s Miss Devlin who “had become Mrs. Kearney out of spite” and there are more. Continue Reading

books

FACING ANXIETY WITH THE MEN OF ‘ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST’

October 1, 2017

one flew over the cuckoo's nest It took a book about people locked in a mental hospital to find the most inspiring sentence, the one that has helped me to work harder on a special project (which I will tell you more about later, when things are more settled). It is also a sentence that has coursed through the cloud of anxiety that has been hanging over my head for years now but most especially over the last few months. Continue Reading

books

READING ‘THE HUMAN STAIN’

November 15, 2016

Reading-the-Human-Stain

There’s always a moment in a good book that stands out and stays imprinted in our mind. It’s a moment that never dies, that feels real, despite it being fiction, and it happens over again, every time someone picks up the book to read it for the first time. Moments like Mrs. Dalloway’s pause comes to mind, Captain Wentworth’s letter to Anne Eliot and practically everything Remedios the beauty does in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Continue Reading

books

READING ‘A PASSAGE TO INDIA’

November 12, 2016

A-passage-to-india-e-m-foster-Tim-Walker-photography

Lost in the world of E.M. Forster while reading A Passage to India.

Let’s go to India darling. Let’s drink tea in the shadow of elephants and hear our voices reverberate in the Marabar Caves. Let us hush darling, come, come, so we can allow the quiet world of Forster to unfold. Continue Reading

conversations

DORIAN GRAY’S STORY

November 7, 2016

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Shop the dream

Look well into the eyes of Dorian Gray…

I grew weary from reading so many stories at the library yesterday, so I spent some time at the Metropolitan Museum, roaming around the empty rooms in a Stella McCartney lace panel dress, trying my best not to disturb the people in the paintings. The halls, the benches, the moulding — they all hushed, so that I could only hear the sound of each painting reverberating the unpopulated rooms. Continue Reading

books

A STORY, WITHIN ANOTHER STORY

July 28, 2016

a story within another storyThey told me summer comes to don short shorts and to go to the beach. They told me I should get some color into those cheeks and to brighten the darkness in my eyes. But why would I want to do that when I could be in a thousand and one other places — walking around the barn with Tess of the D’Urbervilles or hiding in the folds of Anna Karenina’s skirt; having a laugh with Eduardo del Mar or talking in a black and white world with my librarian, Borges. Continue Reading

books

HEADING TO MOROCCO

June 16, 2016

Edie Campbell Poses in Morocco for Peter Lindbergh in Vogue US June 2013Edie Campbell Poses in Morocco for Peter Lindbergh in Vogue US June 2013Edie Campbell Poses in Morocco for Peter Lindbergh in Vogue US June 2013Edie Campbell Poses in Morocco for Peter Lindbergh in Vogue US June 2013

“That night I fell in love with a voice. Only a voice. I wanted to hear nothing more. I got up and walked away.”

The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

Some books are meant to be read, and then re-read, so you can experience every word, every all-consuming sentence written by the author.

I was given The English Patient by the one I fell in love with a long time ago. I remember we were in a garden, eating sandwiches and drinking cups of chocolate as a testament that we were wholly engrossed in our youth and resisting the idea of ever growing up and becoming responsible adults. Continue Reading

books

CHASING BUTTERFLIES

April 29, 2016

Nirav Patel photography

I knew a man once who told me that we should search for the rarest butterflies near the dingiest ponds and not on a flower or a leaf. He looked almost as old as time in his dark green corduroy jacket and thick rimmed glasses, his grey hair headed wherever his fingers would have slid to, while he recited whole stanzas from Shelley’s poetry.

I did find a rare butterfly and as the old man had said, Continue Reading

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