Possibly nitpickery is not in the spirit of the season...
But really, this new bio of Mrs Delany is either being badly misrepresented in this review, or just BAD: Mrs Delany: A Life by Clarissa Campbell Orr review - an 18th-century late bloomer. Mary Delany found fame for her flower ‘mosaiks’ in her 70s, but this followed decades of turbulence. I may not know that much about Mrs D, but I do know that she had already spent several decades doing exquisite and botanically accurate embroideries of flowers, had been part of a circle of female friendship/patronage which was interested in e.g. the new and exciting Linnean system, and that the 'mosaiks' did not come from nowhere. It's in bloody Wikipedia!
As a widow, Mary Delany spent even more of her time at Bulstrode, the home of her close friend, Margaret Bentinck, Dowager Duchess of Portland. The two shared an interest in botany, often going out to look for specific specimens. It was during her frequent stays at Bulstrode with the Duchess that Mary became acquainted with two well-known botanists of the time Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. This contact with the botanists only encouraged Mary's interest in botany and also encouraged the knowledge on which many of her flower paper-cuttings are based.
....
Mary Delany had always been an artist, but during her marriage to Dr Delany she had the time to hone her skills. She was also a gardener, and did needlework, drawing, and painting; but was best known for her paper-cutting.
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I also take my nitcomb to this, which doesn't mention Robert Sheckley's MindSwap, a classic of the genre.
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More than a nitpick here: I think there are confusions here in the apologia of 'changing times' re literature/morality, in which 'sexism' and 'male privilege' are notably not being mentioned:
On Friday Bernard Pivot, a celebrated literary critic and journalist who interviewed Matzneff on TV many times, responded to the growing controversy about how Matzneff had been allowed to describe his relationships with teenage girls on literary talkshows without being challenged by the host.
He said: “In the 1970s and 1980s, literature came before morality; today, morality comes before literature. Morally, that’s progress. We’re all more or less the intellectual and moral products of a country and, above all, an era.”
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In other matters:
I imagine that Kabul has changed enormously since I was there: Shadow City by Tarun Khan review - walks through Kabul: From graveyards to cinemas, bookshops to ‘poppy palaces’ … perilous walks through the Afghan capital offer a unique on-the-ground view of the city.
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