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Elspeth Barker - O Caledonia (2nd Hand Paperback)
SKU B003023
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1 available
Original price
£3.95
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Original price
£3.95
Original price
£3.95
£3.95
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£3.95
Current price
£3.95
Synopsis
Introduced by Maggie O'Farrell.
"Vera was painting the pony's hooves gold in the dining room; Janet said this was bad for him; poison would seep into his bloodstream."
At the bottom of a great stone staircase, dressed in her mother's black lace evening dress, twisted in murderous death, lies Janet.
So end the sixteen years of Janet's short life.
A life spent in a draughty Scottish castle, where roses will not grow, and a jackdaw decides to live in the doll's house.
A life peopled by prettier, smoother-haired siblings, a Nanny with a face like the North Sea and the peculiar, whisky-swigging Cousin Lila.
A life where Janet is perpetually misunderstood - and must turn from people, to animals, to books, to her own wild and wonderful imagination.
Details
- Format : Standard 2nd Hand Paperback
- Condition : Good
- Category : Fiction - Modern Classics
- Published : 1991 (This Edition 2021 - W&N Essentials)
- ISBN : 9781474620512
- SKU : B003023
- PPC : LL300gm
- RRP : £8.99
- Quantity Available : 1 only.
External Reviews
"A sparky, funny work of genius about class, romanticism, social tradition and literary tradition, and one of the best least-known novels of the 20th Century." - Ali Smith.
"A surreal, hilarious and dark story of a troubled adolescence deep in the wilds of Scotland." - Maggie O'Farrell.
"Elspeth Barker's is a wholly original literary voice. O Caledonia, first published 20 years ago, reads as freshly now as then. Steeped in classical allusions, rich in Scottish - and natural - history, fantastical in its highly wrought characters, this coming-of-age-novella is as passionately intense as it is wittily acerbic . . . Propelled by the sheer force of words, the horrors and humours plunge on, observed by an eye both youthful and perspicacious . . . The reader feels unalloyed joy, and occasional winces, on every page." - The Independent.
"An absolute sumptuous treat of a book." - Elizabeth Macneal.
"O Caledonia is a Gothic coming-of-age story, the Brontes and Poe via Dodie Smith and Edward Gorey. Funny, surprising, exquisitely written - and brilliant on the smelly, absurd, harsh business of growing-up." - David Nicholls.
"O Caledonia is an absolute freak show of brilliance; dark and hilarious and dreadful in the best way imaginable. I wish I'd written it." - Louisa Young.
The Author
Elspeth Barker (16 November 1940 - 21 April 2022) was a Scottish novelist and journalist. Born as Elspeth Langlands, she was raised in Drumtochty Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where her parents ran a prep school for boys. From 1958, she read Literae Humaniores at Somerville College, Oxford. Barker's only novel, O Caledonia, was published in 1991.
She wrote for the Independent on Sunday, Guardian, Observer, LRB, TLS, Scotland on Sunday, Vogue, The Literary Review and many more.