Comment-piece on the Nurofen scandal by Suzanne Moore: When ill or in pain, we will pay for any promise of a magic bullet.
And okay, what a scam, eh? But am I getting a bit of subtext here about people wanting magic pills that fix what ails them, tut-tut?
Should they tough it out? I think not. I think it is entirely reasonable to want effective ( Read more... )

Having my attention drawn (via
( Read more... )

Books Read
Well, it was not quite all Courtney Milan all the time but I did read, as already noted in historical accuracy commentating earlier, The Countess Conspiracy and The Suffragette Scandal (which got additional points for having the secondary romantic plot being about same-sex relationship, bless it).
Finished A Name to Conjure With, which ( Read more... )

(I think this is my first feminist rant of the New Year?)
In Silicon Valley ovum-freezing parties are all the rage as high-flying women rush to insure their future fertility: and apparently they're coming to the UK.
The horror. The horror. 'Attendees of her parties get 10 per cent off the cost of egg-freezing; party hosts pocket a “significant” ( Read more... )

Boy o boy, the Hughes literary estate just keeps on giving, doesn't it? We note that they have sold off the Hughes papers in two lots, to Emory University and the residue to the British Library, for not insignificant sums, but still retain a fierce grip on the actual copyright.

Having authorised someone to write a 'literary life', copyright per has ( Read more... )

Further to that discussion about having books/being a reader and its orthogonal relationship to social class (and I have ranted before about the presumption that ORL UR KULCHA R BELONG 2 TEH ELITE) -

I loved this piece by Philip French about being sent a journal of film viewing kept during 1932 by a young woman who was about to leave school at 17 ( Read more... )

Have been noticing lately the tendency of online vendors, in particular those in Amazon Marketplace, giving distant delivery dates for items which seem deeply implausible if the vendor is in the UK, even if they're sending it second-class post.

Is this so that when you receive it within a few days instead of several weeks hence, you are so thrilled ( Read more... )

Teenagers and social networking - it might actually be good for them:
New technologies always provoke generational panic, which usually has more to do with adult fears than with the lives of teenagers. In the 1930s, parents fretted that radio was gaining "an invincible hold of their children". In the 80s, the great danger was the Sony Walkman - ( Read more... )

The University of London has abandoned its proposal to auction a rare set of early printed editions of William Shakespeare's plays following an outcry.

We note that whether the sale could have gone ahead anyway is somewhat moot, given that they still had to get it past the Charity Commissioners since it broke the terms of the bequest.

But o the ( Read more... )

A four day conference will put that kind of crimp in one's style. Though I have been doing some Sekkrit Projekt reading (even if it is increasingly giving off a winding uphill all the way, to the very end, vibe) and skimming stuff for research purposes on female friendship.

What I read

Finished Quintana of Charyn - these really got better over the ( Read more... )