Jemimah Hawkes

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  • She-religions: Sarah Perry and Bridget Collins

    There have been a flood of excellent new books this year from familiar authors, but the two I kept checking bookshops for were Bridget Collins’s The Silence Factory and Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment. These are currently only available in hardcover, but I treated myself, and was not disappointed. Both Collins and Perry have stepped into new…

    September 16, 2024
  • ‘Amsterdam’ by Ian McEwan

    Amsterdam is a swirling, disorientating swell of intrigue and betrayal. In less than 200 pages, McEwan spins a yarn which is slightly bewildering in its creative and emotional scope, whilst also maintaining an impressive degree of narrative control.   Despite having died of a mysterious disease, Molly, a talented middle-aged writer, lies at the crux of…

    March 23, 2023
  • Review of Ondjaki’s ‘Transparent City’ 

    Gut-wrenching and bizarre in equal measure, Transparent City is a masterful and experimental piece of fiction providing striking insight into Angola’s capital, Luanda. One of the book’s key strengths lies in its liquid relationship to reality: it moves through realist, comic and surrealist elements with seeming ease, reflecting the many tenors of city life by…

    March 17, 2023
  • Bertrand Russell, Islamic Coffee Culture and Idleness as Socialist Resistance

    Bertrand Russell, Islamic Coffee Culture and Idleness as Socialist Resistance

    Drinking coffee, working less and illegalising private investment could prompt equality and creativity…

    September 25, 2022
  • 10 Feminist Books I Read This Year

    From witchy reads to realist writing to theory, here are ten books which uphold women’s rights and experiences.

    September 9, 2022
  • Daughter, Mother, Aunt: The Painful Transition to Womanhood in Studio Ghibli

    The girls of Ghibli are adventurous freedom-fighters, but what about their mothers, aunts and grandmothers? In this article I chart the disempowerment of girls as they transition to womanhood in Studio Ghibli.

    September 9, 2022

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