Tag: London

“London” by Kevin Hart

You take a trip to London for a laugh And in a brawling boozy sleep you dream The Queen has kicked the bucket. “Treachery!”   They scream, and soon enough some stiff old gent With scratchy wig roars out, “Off with his head!” (Then whispers, “Nothing personal, old boy.”)   Turns out that you’re awake: they’re dragging you To Tower Hill, and it’s a lovely day! Turns out you gotta tip the brawny guy,   No cash, and so you give him all your cards. “It’s nothin’ personal,” the headsman says. Next thing your skull is leering from a bridge…

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Special Post: Discovering the long prospect: Elizabeth Harrower and Christina Stead

To celebrate the Stead-Harrower symposium at the University of New South Wales this week, please enjoy this excellent piece on the literary connections between Christina Stead and Elizabeth Harrower. by Brigid Rooney and Fiona Morrison In 1969, travelling light during her first visit to Australia in forty years, Christina Stead carried very few books in her luggage. But one book she did carry, for a time, was Elizabeth Harrower’s The Long Prospect (1958). This was the first time Stead had read any of Harrower’s books. Though written in a different key, Harrower’s novel about a sensitive young girl trapped in…

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