An end of week recap

“I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you are going to be an Irish writer.”
– Maeve Binchy

Next weekend will be windupless, I’m afraid, because I’m heading to Belfast for a few days – but normal service will be resumed with WUTW #464 on Saturday 28^th March.

Today, National Write Your Story Day is being celebrated in the United States. Tomorrow brings the mid‑month milestone of the Ides of March, a fitting moment to ponder life’s little twists and turns, and people everywhere can hail the brilliance of the human brain as Brain Awareness Week continues. A little reminder, too, for my British readers: it is Mothering Sunday (also known as Mother’s Day) in the UK tomorrow.

And then, of course, comes the Big One. On Tuesday you may feel moved to put on your favourite green outfit, order a pint of Guinness at the nearest pub and pin a shamrock to your lapel, for it is Saint Patrick’s Day. I trust you’ve all been reading something suitably Irish for Reading Ireland Month and are fully prepared for the festivities.

I was scraping the bottom of a bookish barrel in search of significant literary birthdays this weekend. Among the few I found for today were Estonian poet Kristjan Jaak Peterson (1801), prolific English ghost story writer Algernon Blackwood (1869), Chinese writer Mu Shiying (1912), English poet and writer John Wain (1925), Azerbaijani writer Anar Rzayev (1938), American novelist and short story writer Valerie Martin (1948) and American fantasy and science fiction writer Tad Williams (1957). Coming up tomorrow are African-American novelist Harriet E. Wilson (1825), American writer Rodrigues Ottolengui (1861), English author and screenwriter Lynda La Plante (1943) and Nigerian-born British poet and novelist Ben Okri (1959).

As ever, this is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on the TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming publications, see what folk have on their nightstands and keep readers abreast of various book-related opinions and happenings.

CHATTERBOOKS >>

If you are planning a reading event, challenge, competition, or anything else likely to be of interest to the book blogging community and its followers, please let me know. I will happily share your news here with the fabulous array of bibliowonks who read this weekly wind up.

* Blogs from the Basement * 

Once again, I’m blowing the dust off a couple of noteworthy posts from the archive. (1) Back in January, Julia Kastner of pagesofjulia reviewed Avery Curran’s debut boarding‑school novel Spoiled Milk – “a tale of suspense filled with small and large horrors, schoolgirl skirmishes, lust, death, and the supernatural.” Set in 1928 at the remote Briarley School for Girls, the story follows pupil Emily Locke (“one of a tight-knit group of seven upper-sixth girls”), who is devastated by the sudden death of 18‑year‑old Violet, a girl she idolised – as, it seems, did almost everyone else at the institution, including the French schoolmistress who was especially close to her. Convinced that her friend’s death was no accident, Emily becomes increasingly unsettled and, as “tensions rise”, she and her classmates turn to spiritualism in their search for answers. With “echoes of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca”, this gothic tale of “petty rifts” and “serious terrors” clearly captivated its reviewer. Discover what made it so compelling in Julia’s post: Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran. (2) Reaching further back into the past (to September 2024, to be exact), Brian James Lewis of Damaged Skull Writer shared his thoughts on H.P. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book, “a treasure trove of ideas, quotes, and notes about unique happenings and other writers”, illustrated by Michael Bukowski. He praised it as “a wonderful volume” and awarded it a whopping five stars. You can discover what impressed him so much in his review: The Lethe Press Edition Of “H.P. Lovecraft’s Commonplace Book” Brings His Weird Cosmic Magic to Life with Awesome Illustrations and Fantastic Presentation by Michael Bukowski Along with A Few Cool Surprises from Lovecraft Himself! 

* Lit Crit Blogflash * 

This is where I share my favourite pieces of writing from around the blogosphere. There are a great many talented people producing high-quality book features and reviews, which makes it difficult to pick only one – posted in the last week or so:

Inside The Body Builders: Albertine Clarke on Dreams, Identity, and the Psychology of Writing – New York City–based writer and teacher Luke Sullivan met author Albertine Clarke in a Brooklyn café for a cup of tea and a conversation about The Body Builders – a book recently described by Publishers Weekly as an “alluring fever dream of a novel.” Regarded by some as a standout debut in speculative fiction, Albertine explains that the idea for the story emerged during the first year of her MFA after “emotionally unravelling.” Although she tells Luke that she is now “proud” of her work, she also admits that writing it was “emotionally unhealthy” and she felt relieved when it was finally complete. Set in London, it follows a solitary woman with no “sense of self” who forms an intimate connection with a man she meets at the swimming pool. Albertine “wrote the book very quickly” and says she underwent a rather “intense course of psychotherapy” while working on it. To find out why this happened, please read the full interview at Debutiful.

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (not to mention tooting and bsky-ing) a few favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, here are a selection of interesting snippets: 

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4Columns: ☘️ An Arrow in Flight – Brian Dillon on An Arrow in Flight: Selected Stories, a “collection of Irish writer Mary Lavin’s most skilful, subtle, and furious short stories, selected and introduced by Colm Tóibín.” There is also an excellent piece about this author in The Times (via Archive Today): A ‘quiet genius’ — the Irish female writer who’s finally in the spotlight.

The Arts Desk: Birgitta Trotzig: Queen review – shadow lands – Translator Saskia Vogel “brings [celebrated Swedish author Birgitta Trotzig’s] darker than dark tale of rural grief to English for the first time” in Queen – a novella India Lewis describes as “a strikingly poetic, persistently grim semi-fairy tale set at one of the edges of Europe”.

Nation Cymru: ❤️🤍💚 Book review: Introduction to the Mabinogi by Shân Morgain – Introduction to the Mabinogi is a really “useful little book, designed to be an introduction for the uninitiated [in the] Four Branches of the Mabinogi”, says Simon Rodway.

History Today: ‘Strikingly Similar’ by Roger Kreuz review – “Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots by Roger Kreuz finds that copyright isn’t always a matter of black and white.”

Aeon: On her own terms – “Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook remains shocking, necessary and imperfect – a dazzling experiment in living as a woman”, writes Catherine Taylor.

Literary Review of Canada: 🍁 Dear Mabs – In her review of Brandon Marriott’s Till We Meet Again: A Canadian in the First World War, Ruth Panofsky discovers that “history is much more than a factual register” as she “[dusts] off letters from the Western Front”.

The Butler Did It: The Norths Meet Murder by Frances and Richard Lockridge – “Where have all the married couples gone? The crime-solving duo trope has more or less disappeared from contemporary detective fiction”, protests Brooke Holgerson. In a lively and engaging piece, she digs into this question by revisiting the many fictional married couples who once joined forces to crack cases together.

Nippon.com: The Rise of Popular Fiction: Japanese Books in the 1970s and 1980s – “The 1970s and 1980s in Japan saw readers enjoy a number of entertaining bestsellers, and the arrival of Murakami Haruki on the literary scene.”

The Daily Star: From whispers to roars: The changing voice of women’s fiction – “From Wollstonecraft’s rights to Kang’s rebellions, women’s writing has moved the battle from the public sphere to the private body”. Bangladeshi writer Nazmun Afrad Sheetol is “fascinated by what stories can tell us about the inner lives […] of women throughout history.”

Apple Blossoms in a Mournful Wood: Dostoyevsky Reads Hegel in Siberia and Bursts into Tears – If you are seeking “an exquisite and insufficiently appreciated gem”, K. S. Bernstein points you toward László F. Földényi’s essay collection Dostoyevsky Reads Hegel in Siberia and Bursts into Tears (translated by Ottilie Mulzet).

Newcity: Elizabeth Zaleski Tallies Life’s Disappointments in “The Trouble with Loving Poets” – The debut essay collection [The Trouble with Loving Poets and Other Essays on Failure] turns breakups, lost faith and literary letdowns into sharply funny reflections on failure”, says Brendan Tynan Buck.

Yale University Press: The Enchanting Lives of Others: A Conversation with Can Xue – “The Enchanting Lives of Others is a tale of aspiring readers and writers, the most accessible work yet from the Chinese writer Can Xue. In this Q&A [translated by Annelise Finegan], Can Xue discusses emotion and desire, the essential and the worldly, and the deep power of words.” 

Historia: Faith, flesh and fortunes in a Victorian sex cult – LC Winter, author of forthcoming gothic historical novel Spider, Spider, “writes about the Agapemonites, a faith community whose founder became deeply interested in ‘taking the flesh’ — and the fortunes — of female converts. It’s now probably remembered best as a Victorian sex cult and the cause of several scandals.”

New Scientist (via Archive Today): 🍁 What to read this week: Poisonous People by Leanne ten Brinke – “If up to 20 per cent of us really do score highly on traits related to psychopathy, we are going to need all the help offered by [Nova Scotian author Leanne ten Brinke’s] compelling new book [Poisonous People: Psychopathy, Narcissism, Manipulation, Sadism: How to Resist Them and Improve Your Life]. Sally Adee suggests we “start by admitting [our] own dark traits”.

African Books Collective: Review: Whispers from Vera by Goretti Kyomuhendo – “Kyomuhendo interrogates what marriage vis-à-vis career development looks like” for the people of Kampala in her novel Whispers from Vera – “a story of so many women finding their ground and identity in a society that is bent on silencing them”.

Griffith Review: 🦘 My bookshelf contains multitudes – One half of South Australian publishing company Pink Shorts Press, Emily Hart “recently had the joy of working in a bookshop for the first time in almost ten years, while also reading a lot more narrative non-fiction than usual. Walking around the aisles with piles of stock for shelving, [she] found [herself] interested in where non-fiction books end up on the shelves, and why.”

The Irish News: ☘️ Why Jonathan Swift still unsettles Northern Ireland – “Gerry Mullins on the complex legacy of the author of Gulliver’s Travels”.

BBC Culture: Debut novelist wins major book award for story inspired by lesbian mothers – “Debut novelist Claire Lynch has won the gold prize at the Nero Book Awards for A Family Matter, which was inspired by the true stories of lesbian women who lost custody of their children in the 1980s”, reports Ian Youngs.

The Ramblings of a MacGauffin: Why Death Makes Such a Good Godparent – Death is one of the most familiar figures in folktale”, says Clara MacGauffin in her piece about Godfather Death.

The Telegraph (via Archive Today): Booze, boys and Benzedrine – the tragic life of WH Auden – “Peter Ackroyd’s intriguing biography [Auden] tracks the great poet from his earliest years to his harrowing physical transformation”, finds Declan Ryan.

The Broken Compass: Microhistories #15: an English woman in 18th-century Russia – Writer and historian Mathew Lyons with a short but fascinating piece about the “pioneering travel writer Elizabeth Justice”, author of the 1751 novel, Amelia, or The Distress’d Wife: A History.

Tears in the Fence: ❤️🤍💚 Under Druid’s Hill by Gerald Killingworth Troubadour Publishing – “There is a quest in this novel, a mystery to solve, rooted in parallels and counterparts [involving] the slow unravelling of memories, the unwrapping of secrets and a journey which is more than a family trip to Anglesey but involves a search for truth and the essence of self.” Mandy Pannett reviews Gerald Killingworth’s Under Druid’s Hill.

The Irish Times (via Archive Today): ☘️ Irish myths for modern women: ‘I grew up thinking my name brings sorrow to all men’ – “Banshee is a new collection of stories by contemporary women authors that retell Ireland’s myths and legends through a feminist lens”, writes Ailbhe Malone.

Noted: Susan Sontag’s Playground of Ideas – “That feeling of energetic immersion in a brilliant thinker’s notebooks is something [Susan Sontag] experienced as a teenager while reading the French author, André Gide’s journals.” English professor Jillian Hess recently spent time examining the American writer’s notes in UCLA’s archives, which she describes as the “closest” she will ever get “to thinking alongside one of our most storied public intellectuals.” 

Weird Medieval Guys: 25 medieval manuscripts you can look at online right now – “Almost every institution with a significant collection of medieval manuscripts digitises many of their most significant works and makes them freely accessible online.” However, there are a lot out there, so Olivia makes “a few recommendations [that she has] collected from [her] time curating weird medieval art.”

Sydney Review of Books: 🦘 Cardboard Constructions – “Gripped by a story title chanced across in the Frank Moorhouse archive, Emily Stewart tracks the career of the elusive [Australian writer] Damien White. As she reconstructs his milieu, White’s life raises questions about the pursuit of freedom in life and art.”

The New York Times (via Archive Today): Did the Anti-Abortion Movement Begin in Ancient Rome? – In Reproductive Wrongs: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women, “the classicist Sarah Ruden traces efforts to exert political control over family planning back 2,000 years”, finds Jennifer Szalai.

The Kathmandu Post: The rise of English writing in Nepal – “With mentorship, contests, and publication opportunities, emerging writers are blending classical storytelling with innovative styles, reflecting both societal realities and generational change”, reports Jony Nepal.

Publishers Weekly: Literary Portals: Deep Vellum on Publishing Tatiana Țîbuleac – Publisher Will Evans and rights director Sarah McEachern chatted with PW’s Sam Spratford about bringing the Moldovan-Romanian author to the London Book Fair in honour of her English-language debut, The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes, translated by Monica Cure.

Washington Independent Review of Books: I’ve Looked at Books from Both Sides Now – “A review copy is a gift, but with strings of responsibility attached”, says Ellen Prentiss Campbell. She reflects here on reading and critiquing books.

Sithara’s Newslettara: ☘️ Fantasy writers are weird about Ireland – “Fantasy writers talk about Ireland the way straight dudes talk about Japan”. Sithara Ranasinghe argues that “the modern fantasy genre borrows heavily from a pan-Celtic soup.” The “Celtic” label “is slippery” and “used to describe disparate cultures” – indeed, for some, this “catch-all” term is “controversial” and represents a “fantastical construct that has been used to market the myth of a lost age of enchantment.”

NPR: Sarvat Hasin’s new novel ‘Strange Girls’ considers how friendships toxify – Both characters are “defined almost by their similarities as much of their differences. […] they’re both bookworms and they’re both obsessed with novels and writing and storytelling and are very creatively ambitious and want to be part of that world.” “Juana Summers speaks with author Sarvat Hasin about her new novel Strange Girls and the complexities of friendship.”

Mining the Dalkey Archive: Reading Ivan Ângelo’s “The Celebration” – “If you’re a fan of Latin American literature and haven’t heard of the Avon Bard series, you’re in for a treat.” Theodore McDermott with a piece on The Celebration (originally published in Context No. 19), which he describes as “a Brazilian cult classic.”

The Conversation: The Taliban wages war on women, but their voices roar on the page. Here are 5 essential books by Afghan women writers – “Silence would mean accepting and surrendering to the Taliban’s power,” writes one of the authors. “Theirs are the voices of resistance”, says Ayesha Jehangir. The featured book, My Dear Kabul, is a collective diary written by a women’s creative group in Afghanistan, documenting a year of life under Taliban rule.

The Critic: Publishing skewered — in 1939 – “Anthony Powell’s pre‑war novel [What’s Become of Waring] is still the more reliable guide to the book business,” says the Secret Author about this comic British “publishing caper”.

Beck and Call: ☘️ Where Readers Meet Writers: Sentimental Journey? – Christine Beck captures her ongoing fascination with the Irish novelist in a single breathless line: “Just when I think I’m done with Niall Williams just when I think I know his attitude his love for all things Irish his wry sense of the hilarious another Niall Williams book pops up in my feed.” History of the Rain is her favourite so far.

Reactor: Unfortunately I Am Wrestling With Genre Again – Molly Templeton would like to know: “Can you ever really draw a line between genres? And does it matter?”

Monocle: ‘Do not forget this humanity in the face of such suffering’: Culture writer Kate Tsurkan on keeping Ukrainian literature alive during war – “Editor and translator Kate Tsurkan highlights how Ukrainian authors, both past and present, address themes of human dignity, freedom and the right to choose your future.”

The Arts Fuse: Book Review: “Eating Ashes” — A Haunting Tale of Migration and Mourning – “Sliding back and forth between the past and the present, Eating Ashes [by Mexican author now living in Spain, Brenda Navarro] paints a gritty, emotional, and forceful vision of a family traumatized by disconnection”, says Brooks Geiken.

JSTOR Daily: Edgar Allan Poe’s Mechanical Imagination – Danny Robb argues that “behind The Raven’s melancholy lies a theory of composition shaped by magazines, machines, and modernity.”

Fast Company: How Penguin Random House set its penguin logo free – Grace Snelling reports: “The company just introduced a series of playful, hand-drawn illustrations that bring its iconic penguin to life.

BBC Latin America: Acclaimed Peruvian writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique dies aged 87 – Leading Peruvian writer Alfredo Bryce Echenique, “best known for the 1970 novel A World for Julius, which chronicled the frivolous lives of the elite in Peru’s capital Lima through the eyes of an orphan”, passed away at home on Tuesday.

The Epoch Times (via Archive Today): Lewis and Tolkien on War and Hope in Hard Times – “They found a gleam of hope on the fringes of war’s dark shadow.”

Artnet: Long-Lost Archimedes Text Resurfaces in French Museum – “A missing page from The Archimedes Palimpsest was found in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois”, reveals Richard Whiddington. 

WLT: The Year of the Wind by Karina Pacheco – Timeus Cerezo reviews The Year of the Wind, a novel by Karina Pacheco Medrano that portrays the devastating effects of political violence in Peru on the lives of three women in the early 1980s. The book is translated from the Spanish by Mara Faye.

Three Dickens in one:
The Stories Behind the Stories: Boz to Drood: Kent in Dickens’ writing – Anna Sayburn Lane considers how the English county of Kent influenced Charles Dickens’ work, “from earliest satire to perhaps his most celebrated novel.”
Fine Books & Collections: Rare Charles Dickens Clothing Goes on Show – Rare surviving items of Charles Dickens’ clothing, including the linen shirt collar worn by the writer when he suffered his fatal stroke in 1870 and black silk stockings have gone on display at the Charles Dickens Museum in London.
Five Books: Historical Novels Based on True Stories – “The best historical fiction should transport the reader directly into the past, yet offer insight that reflects upon the present, argues Emily Howes, whose new novel Mrs. Dickens will be released later this year. Here, she recommends five of her favourite historical novels that, like her own books, are drawn from true stories.”

Readings: 🦘 The most anticipated books of 2026 – “The first Readings Monthly of 2026 is here”, says head book buyer Alison Huber in her recent column. She “kicks off […] with a look at some of the most exciting Australian books coming [out]” from March onwards.

The Tyee Weekender: 🍁 Meet the Historic Alberta Couple Who Fought for Press Freedom – Ximena Gonzalez tells us that their grandson, Tom Radford wrote the book Peggy & Balmer: Two Journalists at the Edge of History and made a film about “their impactful work.”

TMW: How J.K. Rowling’s Post–Harry Potter Career Is Evolving in 2026 – “Few authors in modern literary history face a post-success challenge as immense as that of J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter series not only defined a generation of readers but reshaped global publishing [and over] two decades after the original novels captured worldwide attention, Rowling’s career in 2026 reflects a complex, ongoing evolution—one marked by reinvention, recalibration, and a deliberate effort to step beyond the shadow of her most famous creation.”

Euro News: António Lobo Antunes, one of Portugal’s greatest writers, dies aged 83 – “António Lobo Antunes, an icon of contemporary Portuguese literature, has died,” reports Ema Gil Pires.

Radio Times: Jane Austen-inspired BBC drama The Other Bennet Sister gets release date confirmed in new trailer – “Ella Bruccoleri, Ruth Jones and Richard E Grant are among the starry cast,” reveals David Craig.

City Journal: ❤️🤍💚 A Kingdom of Books – The small, agreeable town of Hay‑on‑Wye, perched just inside the Welsh border, became the first place in the world to build its identity – and its economy – around the trade in second‑hand books. In this essay, Theodore Dalrymple traces the curious, often eccentric history of a community shaped by bibliophilia.

AnOther: Inside the Enigmatic Mind of Photographer Larry Sultan – “American photographer Larry Sultan always wanted to be a writer, and so he wrote, using words as a means rather than an end”, says Miss Rosen who examines a “captivating new book [featuring his] never-before-seen journals, notebooks, short stories, annotated manuscripts, postcards, and more”.

Slate: In Defense of Physical Books – “Stop telling me to get an e-reader”, snaps Gen Z physical book purist Hannah Docter-Loeb.

1000 Libraries Magazine: Library Accepts Cat Pictures for Outstanding Fees – Peaches Dean invites you to “discover March Meowness at Worcester Public Library, where cat photos clear fines, spark smiles, and unite book lovers in shared feline fun.”

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FINALLY >>

If there is something you would particularly like to see in Winding Up the Week or if you have any suggestions, questions or comments for Book Jotter in general, please drop me a line or comment below. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I wish you a week bountiful in books and rich in reading.

NB In this feature, ‘winding up’ refers to the act of concluding something and should not be confused with the British expression: ‘wind-up’ – an age-old pastime of ‘winding-up’ friends and family by teasing or playing pranks on them. If you would like to know more about this term, there is an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.

>> See my monthly digest at the Book Jotter Journal on Substack. >>

Categories: Winding Up the Week

Tags: Afghan Literature, Ailbhe Malone, Albertine Clarke, Avery Curran, Can Xue, H.P. Lovecraft, Irish Literature, Irish Myths, Karina Pacheco Medrano, Maeve Binchy, Mary Lavin, Michael Bukowski, Reading Ireland Month 2026, St Patrick’s Day, Welsh Literature