Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jeanette Winterson
Standard Name: Winterson, Jeanette
Birth Name: Jeanette Winterson
JW
, writing in the late twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, has been acclaimed by some critics and savaged by others for her provocative and outspoken novels, in which she uncompromisingly confronts cultural notions of gender identity, sexuality, and religion. She attempts to change the world through her writing in the manner of but in place of political activism. Her work is widely studied and celebrated by feminist and lesbian readers and critics. Characteristically, she blends many genres: fable, fairytale, fantasy, history, philosophy, lesbian writing, science fiction, magic realism, and scientific studies. She is fond of stories in which the characters are on a journey together.
Rich was during her lifetime and still is widely acclaimed and honoured as a major poet, theorist, and critic of culture. Her poetry and prose have been examined in literary and social criticism, and in...
Friends, Associates
Ruth Rendell
There RR
lent out estate cottages to avant-garde writers younger than herself, such as Martin Amis
, Julian Barnes
, and Jeanette Winterson
, to provide them with a place to write.
Parker, Peter, editor. A Reader’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers. Oxford University Press.
627
Literary responses
Louise Page
Several reviewers found the story cumbersome or convoluted,
Eisen, Kurt. “Louise Page”. British Playwrights, 1956-1995. A Research and Production Source Book, edited by William W. Demastes, Greenwood Press, pp. 291-00.
294
but Jeanette Winterson
in the Times Literary Supplement wrote that Louise Page had done well in keeping her simple tale uncluttered.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Literary responses
Ruth Padel
Linda France
, reviewing this book for Mslexia, called it intimate, animated, and inviting.
France, Linda. “One of a Kind”. Mslexia, No. 26, p. 53.
53
For Jeanette Winterson
it was sexy, strong, rhythmic, passionate, fully alive.
Crown, Sarah. “A life in poetry: Ruth Padel”. The Guardian.
Her election was marred by unpleasantness. Another of the three short-listed candidates, Caribbean poet Derek Walcott
, withdrew from the competition after a letter-writing campaign brought to the attention of potential voters the fact that...
Literary responses
Grace Nichols
GN
's publishers quote glowing opinions about her work. Gwendolyn Brooks
has praised her rich music, an easy lyricism . . . also grit, and earthy honesty, a willingness to be vulnerable and clean,Jeanette Winterson
Literary responses
Sara Maitland
This book was warmly welcomed in The Guardian by Kathleen Jamie
, who found it both unique and timely, written with great skill, judgment and good humour.
Jamie, Kathleen. “Noises off”. The Guardian.
Jeanette Winterson
picked it as a favourite read...
Literary responses
Jackie Kay
Jeanette Winterson
, picking her best books of 2010, called this a lovely book, thoughtful and high-spirited, registering loss and love alike.
Winterson, Jeanette. “Cut Out and Keep”. Guardian Weekly, pp. 52-4.
54
Friends, Associates
Susan Hill
Later in life SH
developed friendships with writers Jeanette Winterson
and Joanna Trollope
.
Hill, Susan. “Susan Hill”. Susan Hill.
Reception
Patricia Highsmith
The appearance of a biography by Andrew Wilson
in June 2003 drew a remarkable panegyric on PH
from Slavoj žiŽek
: for him, he wrote, her name designates a sacred territory; his judgement of her...
Literary responses
Maggie Gee
The cover of the paperback edition quotes Anita Brookner
in The Spectator saying I read it twice, and it was even better the second time, and Jeanette Winterson
in the Sunday Times saying it was...
Intertextuality and Influence
Zoë Fairbairns
People she thanks for helping (for instance, in interviews) with the research for this book include Rosie Boycott
, Sara Maitland
, Jeanette Winterson
, and her own parents. Part of the novel grew from...
Literary responses
Ephelia
Mulvihill's website at http://marauder.millersville.edu/~resound/ephelia/ offers a great deal of information including identifications, put forward with greater or lesser degrees of certainty, of twenty-three historical personages named in Female Poems on Several Occasions, together with...
Literary responses
Helen Dunmore
Reviewers welcomed the totally believable parallel world of these realistic fantasies, discerning in it a haunting, dangerous beauty all of its own.
