Thank you for this. It is a much-needed reminder of why I do what I do.

Thank you! I’ve never heard of her before. This looks great!

Oh my god, you are in for such a treat. One of the integral authors of my childhood.

May I commend to you both the duology Goldengrove/Unleaving, by the wonderful Jill Paton Walsh? They also act as a sort of inter-tect to To the Lighthouse, although she said she had not read it before writing Goldengrove (1972). www.theguardian.com/books/2020/o...

Inter-text dammit.

Oh, I’ve read ‘Goldengrove’ but didn’t realise it had a companion edition! I love JPW, she’s such an interesting writer.

She's a marvel. Her A Parcel of Patterns was a way better book than Brooks' Year of Wonders in my very much not so humble opinion. I met her a few times, she was fabulous. Took my mother to a talk at the NSW State Library when she was promoting her Wimsey novel, and a bunch of us children's book

people kidnapped her and took her to the Intercontinental for afternoon tea, where she proceeded to swear like a navvy and my Methodist minister's wife mum didn't mind a bit. 😆

Incredible.

I love JPW too but the way she writes about a character with Down syndrome in one of these books (think it’s Unleaving?) is worth warning for, it’s pretty hard to read

Oh, thanks, Ika. Long time since I’ve read them.

No worries! It really stuck in my head for some reason.

Damn…. thanks for the heads-up.

No worries! I sort of hate being "that guy" but I do think this one is worth being warned about. Plenty of other awesome JPW to read.