UK Literary Luvvies

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Surprised that Alice Vincent is modelling clothes today. The faux humble shrug on that reel is infuriating. She reminds me a lot of Panda - desperate to be seen as intellectual and serious but still pushes to have her wedding featured in Vogue.

And of course you can be ‘fussy’ and determined not to buy any typical maternity wear when people send you things for free?????
 
Tiger tat said:
Surprised that Alice Vincent is modelling clothes today. The faux humble shrug on that reel is infuriating. She reminds me a lot of Panda - desperate to be seen as intellectual and serious but still pushes to have her wedding featured in Vogue.

And of course you can be ‘fussy’ and determined not to buy any typical maternity wear when people send you things for free?????
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Hilarious simpering reel! She is giving strong first person to ever be pregnant vibes.

Also, the whole determination not to buy 'maternity' clothes and things she won't wear afterwards riles me. There is such a huge market for second hand maternity clothes (of all styles, labels, designers etc), so why not encourage people to keep that circular economy going (which opens up affordable clothing options to people having babies during a COL crisis) as opposed to encouraging people to spaff huge amounts on new 'sustainable' pieces. Buying new is just never going to be as sustainable as second hand - hate this moniker which excuses people paying large sums for what is still essentially the manufacturing of new items and all that entails (energy use, materials, packaging, shipping, etc). Yes, there is always going to be a garment industry but the sustainability word bandied about like this just excuses continued guilt free consumerism. But guess it makes her feel better about receiving gifted luxe goods, so...
 
BanditHealer said:
Anyone recommend any good books from the LLs? I like Dolly's writing. I have a train journey coming up and need some inspiration.
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There’s a Reading Chats thread with some good ones, we discuss all the latest books that have come out ❤️ 📚

Londongirl89 said:
I don’t rate her writing, I thought her book Olive was mediocre. It was hyped up a lot by her peers. I think she’s a good podcaster though.
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I thought it was a good IDEA but descended into the same old simpering about privileged female friendship :) a more dramatic angle might have worked
 
BanditHealer said:
I read Tina Brown's book about her career and really enjoyed it. Magazines in the 80s and 90s were so wild.
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Me too, just last week! It was a surprise find on the audiobook app linked to my local library (am in US). It's The Vanity Fair Diaries and it's really fantastic--she arrives basically fresh off the Tatler boat in 1983 and barely knows anyone in NYC, and by the end of the volume is plotting how she's going to remake the New Yorker. For anyone who read VF back in the day, it's a delicious revisit; for fans of old-timey magazine journalism of the previous century, it's a fascinating glimpse of how the issues came together and how much controversy they could generate. It will make you want to go and look up all the juicy old stories and the garish party pictures of NYC socialites!
Also really loved The Palace Papers. (And of course The Diana Chronicles! Sorry, major TB fan. I write biographical entries for reference books for a living and hers are just the gold standard for me. Factual yet entertaining!)
 
cee-bee said:
instagram/social media doesn’t really cultivate that though. It’s all about projecting this idealistic screenshot and building an audience based on this. It’s very shallow and superficial.

like learning a language is really commendable, but there isn’t a romantic way to capture the hours of studying and the stress of exams etc, capture the self doubt and worry, and then capture the feeling of pride and achievement.
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Totally this! I’ve been working on a book for 2 years, - snatching writing time between working full time (not as a writer), raising a kid, moving countries, doing a (non writing) side hustle for extra money. There’s times I’ve been up til the wee hours, or up before the suns up to get my stuff done. Today on a rare day off, I spent 3 hrs beavering away in a library, rearranging paragraphs and punctuation.
Writing is so bleeping hard in real life and it’s not romantic or aesthetic at all 99% of the time. I’m doing all this pretty much knowing there’s no future, no book deal, whatever: I just love it. I need to do it. Nevertheless, I would say that literally 3 people in my real life even know I’m writing a book. Even writing it here now kind of sucks the energy out of the whole thing tbh, because it’s so easy to “play at writing” as a pp so eloquently put it on here.
 
I absolutely detested Everything I Know About Love. Twee, self-aggrandising and oozing with privilege.

I also can't abide anything by Sally Rooney (who I appreciate is not a UK luvvie). I actually didn't mind Normal People at first but the cult that grew up around her (not to mention the fact she doesn't use punctuation and has essentially written the same novel three times) was deeply off-putting. Another one who prattles on about being a Marxist despite happily living and working in a liberal democracy.
 
Rooney Is from quite close to me so I really wanted to like her writing but Jesus, I have never hated a book more than I hated conversations with friends. Not one likeable character in the book which is honestly quite impressive. I haven’t read any of her other books yet but from what I heard though they are more of the same? Sorry Sally. She’s doing well though so I don’t think she needs me as a fan 😂
 
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