reeling and writhing: Biography

Thanks to Jill Jones for pointing out this feature on Australian poetry at British poetry site Metaroar, which developed organically into a group interview by New South Wales writer Angela Meyer with Jill, David Prater and Paul Hardacre. I will read more of it later, but partly due to my recent communications with him, I have to say I was tickled by David's answers to the questions of the role of poetry in society ('Sometimes I fail to see what role poetry has, other than to keep poets sane'), and things poetry should be able to do but cannot (' I wish it could bring down a government').

I really enjoyed Sophie Cunningham's great piece in The Age this weekend on writers and blogging, where she draws skilfully on her personal blogging experience and then weaves that of others into the article to give a broad and detailed picture of how blogging and writing do and don't mix (among other things). I especially liked the ending quote from fellow Ozblogger Boynton, which first appeared here:

I wonder what writers can learn from blogging? (the electric speed of playful language for one, where ideas seed).

A compelling review by Brenda Niall appeared in The Age today ( sorry, registration is required for this one already). I will get this book, Body Parts: Essays on Life Writing, after I’ve got hold of Sebald's Campo Santo and there will be much rejoicing ( as was remarked when Robin’s minstrels were eaten).
This is Lee's second book to include material on Woolf ( this one appears in the Amazon catalogue as Virginia Woolf's Nose: Essays on Biography) and she apparently has ' sharp things to say' about the film The Hours. Niall says,

As the reflections of a professional biographer, Body Parts will have special interest for anyone who attempts that craft. Yet it has an unexpected breadth of appeal...the occupational risks of biography, which include narcissism and possessiveness, are everyday hazards in human relationships. Among many wonderful stories about the living and the dead, a few are disappointing...it is a pity Graham McInnes' portrait of his mother Angela Thirkell in The Road to Gundagai was not taken into account in Lee's chapter on the snobbish world of Thirkell's novels. Thirkell's brief exile in Melbourne brought out the worst in her. "Mother was awful," McInnes wrote, "but I loved her."

Brenda Niall has written several bios of Australian writers and artists, and I’ve yet to digest her extended treatment of Martin Boyd’s family, The Boyds. Dipping into it quickly I did find much I had already read in her book about Martin himself.
(For State-siders reading this, Martin Boyd was a lively and urbane recreator of late nineteenth century Melbourne life in his novels, the most famous being the four books known as the Langton Quartet. I adore all of them. More on A Difficult Young Man another time.
By the way, I didn't know Amazon provided citations via email.)

Visitors from Blusterhead, on the other hand, are highly likely to know exactly who Martin was and how famous his nephew Arthur and other family members are in Australia. One of my regrets ( among several, not an extensive list) is that I did not visit Bundanon before Arthur died a few years back. Imagine seeing Australia’s greatest living painter at work, as he was wont to do for visitors... and yours truly missed the opportunity.