The Children's Book

I am about half-way through A.S. Byatt's latest, the Booker-shortlisted The Children's Book. It touches on the nature of art in several ways; perhaps most interesting for this blog is the portrayal of the potter Benedict Fludd, who (it has been suggested) bears some resemblance to Eric Gill.

It has attracted a good few reviews, helpfully listed at www.complete-review.com. The review by James Wood in the LRB I found most interesting.

Letters of T.S. Eliot

I note the recent appearance of the second volume in the correspondence of T.S. Eliot, covering the period 1923-25. Although Eliot was writing little new poetry in this period, there appears to be much there on more general questions of learned publishing, the circulation of ideas and Eliot's view of what The Criterion was to do. Several reviews have appeared, the most extended of which is by Stefan Collini in the Guardian. Collini has of course written on Eliot in his Absent Minds. Michael Wood in the LRB draws out some traces of Eliot's emerging religious thinking on the importance of suffering and sacrifice.

Ruth Duckworth

I note a recent obituary of the sculptor Ruth Duckworth, in the Guardian. There is some useful biographical and catalogue information here.

Of most interest for this blog are her Stations of the Cross, for St. Joseph's Church, New Malden (R.C.). There is a very full set of photos at the church's own site.

C.S. Lewis and the planets

There is an interesting and very favourable review by Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, in a recent TLS of Planet Narnia, a new book on C.S.Lewis, and in particular the symbolism of the planets embedded in the Narnia series. It argues that themes that are explicit in The Discarded Image and That Hideous Strength can be used as a method of understanding the seven books of the Narnia series.
The author, Michael Ward, has put together a website dedicated to the book. It is available online (to subscribers) at Oxford Scholarship Online.