Melissa Benn

Interesting piece by Rachel Cusk in the Guardian review yesterday, musing on the theme of A Room Of One’s Own, prompted in part by new editions of both Woolf and De Beauvoir, in which she suggests that women who make fiction out of the reality of most womens experience, that is, of the ‘repetitions’ of [...]

I have just been to see 2001: A Space Odyssey with my family: part of a Darwin season – yes, really – at our new local cinema. The film itself provoked a storm of discussion within our little group with opinion divided between those who pronounced it ‘complete and utter tosh’ and those who argued [...]

I had an interesting and instructive encounter with a wonderfully enthusiastic sixth former last night. Looking round state sixth forms, largely out of curiosity, with my year 11 daughter we went to the Government and Politics stand at one of London’s bigger sixth form colleges. My daughter will almost certainly be taking this A level [...]

Those of you interested in refining the art of the perfect holiday read might be interested to know where I have got to with this earth shattering quest, following my last post on this subject. The most important news is that I have already read the first and fattest novel on the list, American Wife [...]

Read Melissa Benn’s contribution, among others, to a recent debate on this subject in the New Statesman.

As the holidays approach, my attention is focussed on what music and books to take. My elder daughter has fervently promised to load all the music I could possibly desire onto my i-pod, in return for ‘borrowing’ it for the last couple of years, so that’s taken care of ( what a dream to simply [...]

People often ask me what my old school, Holland Park comprehensive, was like and what it is like now. For the moment, I will direct people to Michele Hanson’s excellent article in The Guardian about the school in recent years. Enough said. I will be returning to this subject again, in this, Holland Park’s fiftieth [...]

Have been catching up on Nicholas Lezard’s regular column in the New Statesman about his life in London. It’s like talking to a clever friend on the phone, when you get into that free associating mix of incident, reflection, literary and musical and political references and each time, there’s a subtly different mood board. Highly [...]