Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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When in doubt, tea.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

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cbr16bingo golden Mrs. Palfrey, recently widowed, has had to make a decision regarding the rest of her life.  She has no home of her own, since she had spent most of her life stationed in Burma with her husband.  She had been temporarily staying with her daughter in Scotland, but clearly that was no permanent solution.  So she eyed the London papers and settled on the Claremont Hotel in South Kensington.  After all, her grandson, whom she had rarely seen, worked nearby at the British […]

“And it so angered me that I finally thought to myself, ‘Bitch, do something yourself instead of just sitting there getting angry. Do something.'”

Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon by Kate Andersen Brower

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What a fascinating life this woman led. I really feel like it would be pretty hard to come away from this book not liking Elizabeth Taylor as a human being. She loved fiercely, struggled publicly, and left a huge legacy that has helped millions of people, and continues to do so. I grew up in the 80s and 90s knowing who Elizabeth Taylor was, just like everyone else, because she was part of the zeitgeist, one of the most famous women ever to live. I […]

The Old Hotel

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

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Elderly widow Laura Palfrey, unable to live on her own and unwilling to live with her crass daughter in Scotland, checks into the Claremont Hotel. There she finds a community of sorts among the other elderly residents, who pass their days in desultory conversations between mealtimes and waiting, mostly in vain, for their relatives to visit. When Mrs. Palfrey takes a nasty fall on her daily walk, she is rescued by Ludo Myers, a writer living in a shabby basement apartment near the hotel. The […]

Everyone was on their best behaviour.

The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor

In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor

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If you haven’t read any Elizabeth Taylor, I couldn’t recommend her more so. She’s got a very similar profile to writers like Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Barbara Pym, and Barbara Comyns. The biggest difference among all of these is that there’s a variable amount of irony and sarcasm involved in each and the tones shifts dramatically throughout each. For Taylor, she does have a deeply ironic and sardonic novel about a hack writer (Angel) which is wonderfully, but not prototypical to her other novels. Her […]

She lets words break her bones. She hides her face at the slightest thing.

A Game of Hide And Seek by Elizabeth Taylor

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Another day is another world. The difference between foreign countries is never so great as the difference between night and day. A Game of Hide and Seek is a 1951 novel by Elizabeth Taylor. My copy was reprinted by NYRB Classics in 2012. I’ve not read anything by Elizabeth Taylor previously. This was not an easy book to read. It begins with a brief summer romance between the two main characters, Harriet and Vesey, as teenagers. They have been thrown together through family relationships and […]

Somehow I forgot to review these, I think. I dunno.

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Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont – 4/5 Stars I do remember reading this, mostly. It was back in February, I was tired, stressed. And so I would have thought! that I would have written a review of this one. But regardless, here I am. I was reminded of this book recently when I found a copy of the movie in a Little Free Library. Let me tell you a very non-shocking thing about me and Little Free Libraries. I love them, and I think they […]



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