Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

On toughness - toughest writers of all time?

109 replies

WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 16:38

With a view to adding to my TBR pile, I've been trying to think of the toughest, least sentimental female authors of all time, with an emphasis on midcentury to the present day.

The names which keep coming to mind are North Americans and Continental Europeans. I must have a blindspot for these fair isles, which must surely have their own tradition of stylistic toughness.

Help me out, please?

Who are some of the toughest, least sentimental British fiction and non-fiction writers - the ones who might be criticised as e.g. "cold", "heartless" etc because their style leaves space for the reader to feel their own feels

OP posts:
Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:58

heldinadream · 11/08/2024 18:52

Which one, Rebecca West? I meant to add the title BTW for people. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. It's astonishing isn't it? A total tour de force.

Show quote history

Sorry - I should have been using the quote function. I meant the Sarah Hall book. I haven't begun with Rebecca West yet.

OP posts:
Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:57

I've lined up some Elizabeth Bowen and read a couple of short stories. Intrigued to read more.

I loved Collette as a teen. Eminently re-visitable.

Lively - good catch!

Howard - new to me. Thanks.

OP posts:
Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:53

Ooh the only one I know there is Rose McCaulay's What Not. A tad early for my purposes, but honourable mention.

Thanks for the new recs @heldinadream 🙌

OP posts:
Pebbles16 · 11/08/2024 18:53

Definitely Fay Weldon. Brilliant writer. I studied her for my degree and then went on to read a lot more.

heldinadream · 11/08/2024 18:52

WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:49

I read this! It is AMAZING. Adding her to my list.

Which one, Rebecca West? I meant to add the title BTW for people. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. It's astonishing isn't it? A total tour de force.

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:49

I read this! It is AMAZING. Adding her to my list.

OP posts:
heldinadream · 11/08/2024 18:47

Some great shouts above so won't repeat but must add Rebecca West. Her phenomenal, massive and delightfully readable book on the history and culture of what was then Yugoslavia, which I am a third of the way through (over 1,100 pages long), has shocked me into realising that I've never read any of her fiction which I intend to remedy ASAP.
Also one you may not have come across- I'm reading the first volume of her memoir, Mermaid Singing, currently and it is excellent- Charmian Clift.
Love a book thread OP. 💓
Oh and Rose Macaulay! I'm gonna think of more and more I know it, I feel the tingle of names appearing out of the mist...

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:35

I've never gone there @LiterallyOnFire I will investigate

OP posts:
MorriganManor · 11/08/2024 18:33

Sarah Hall. Particularly The Carhullan Army.

TonTonMacoute · 11/08/2024 18:33

Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Bowen
One of my faves Colette
Susan Hill, perhaps

I wouldn't say Penelope Lively was sentimental either.

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:32

Oh, there's a name to conjure with @Elodie9 Adding to the list. Thanks.

OP posts:
LiterallyOnFire · 11/08/2024 18:31

Diana Athill. Especially Somewhere towards the end.

Elodie9 · 11/08/2024 18:30

Beryl Bainbridge ?

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 18:26

I believe she started her life in Zim, but moved to England in her twenties and stayed here until her death.

I have a lot of time for Shriver's novels. Buck is another novel name for me. Thanks!

OP posts:
CrossPurposes · 11/08/2024 18:25

Kornvallmo · 11/08/2024 18:12

Oh, I thought Doris Lessing was South African!
I can't think of many British ones @WhisperTree Americans and Europeans are more my cup of tea.
Like Pearl Buck. Lionel Shriver.

She was born to British parents in Persia and they moved to Rhodesia when she was a child. She moved to London in 1949. Her original surname was Tayler.

Kornvallmo · 11/08/2024 18:12

Oh, I thought Doris Lessing was South African!
I can't think of many British ones @WhisperTree Americans and Europeans are more my cup of tea.
Like Pearl Buck. Lionel Shriver.

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 17:28

Embarrassed to admit that I've read zero works by Spark. I will remedy this, following your recommendations. Many thanks.

Now that you've all got me thinking, Edna O'Brien might belong here. Irish, but she became a Londoner. And she was, without doubt, from the School of Tough.

OP posts:
SydneyCarton · 11/08/2024 17:28

Elizabeth Taylor’s short ghost story “Poor Girl” is very good, with an interesting twist.

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 17:26

Byatt - love; have read
Carter - I suppose she is tough in some ways, though I'd filed her under gothic
Murdoch - YES!!!!!!!! Why didn't I think of her? She's the exemplar. The Sea The Sea is my favourite, but I read most of her novels in my early twenties
Lessing - OFC! Why didn't I think of her? Again, I've read many of her novels
Pat Barker - good catch. The Silence of the Girls stayed with me
A L Kennedy - haven't read, but will investigate

Thanks so much. A redoubtable roster of Toughness.

OP posts:
HeadNorth · 11/08/2024 17:25

Muriel Spark comes to mind instantly. The Driver’s Seat has been mentioned and I will add Loitering With Intent - the inappropriately named Fleur is witty & bracingly unsentimental.

Cattery · 11/08/2024 17:22

Sorry. Not female. Virginia Woolf?

Cattery · 11/08/2024 17:20

Henry James

Original poster
WhisperTree · 11/08/2024 17:20

Can you mention any less philosophical life writers @Kornvallmo ?

OP posts:
CrossPurposes · 11/08/2024 17:20

Does Doris Lessing fit? Muriel Spark? The Driver's Seat is bleak.

cupcaske123 · 11/08/2024 17:20

A S Byatt
Angela Carter
Iris Murdoch
Doris Lessing
Pat Barker
A L Kennedy