Category Archives: Working Class Voices

Annie Ernaux wins the Nobel

Posted on October 27, 2022 by mandywight

I’m delighted that Annie Ernaux has won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. I greatly admire her book The Years and it’s resonated with every woman of a certain age I know. I wanted to read more of her, so … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in French, Books in Translation, Memoir, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Streulicht- Sky Glow- by Deniz Ohde

Posted on September 6, 2022 by mandywight

Most years I try to read a book from the German Book Prize Shortlist. I was drawn to Streulicht, shortlisted in 2020, as it’s a coming-of-age novel about a girl from a working-class milieu who moves away from her family … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The Gamekeeper by Barry Hines

Posted on June 5, 2022 by mandywight

It seemed fitting to be reading The Gamekeeper in the days leading up to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It’s a story of privilege and inequality, focusing on the life of George Purse, gamekeeper for the Duke, the owner of vast … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in English, Nature Writing, Working Class Voices | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Posted on May 20, 2022 by mandywight

I’d been rather avoiding this 2020 Booker Prize winner, feeling I just couldn’t face this story of an alcoholic mother in 1980s Glasgow. Then, something shifted, and I read it over a few days, the often harrowing subject matter made … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in English, Working Class Voices | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Combats et metamorphoses d’une femme by Edouard Louis.

Posted on February 24, 2022 by mandywight

I first came across Édouard Louis through his book The End of Eddy, a biographical account of growing up gay in a poor working class environment in Normandy. This more recent book is the story of his mother, Monique—though we … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in French, Working Class Voices | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Levys Testament by Ulrike Edschmid

Posted on November 12, 2021 by mandywight

Reading Ulrike Edschmid’s latest novel has been a bit like settling down for a chat with an old friend: I’m a fan of her work and have enjoyed her previous novels, The disappearance of Philip S., My mother’s lovers, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

It’s over. Don’t go there. Short stories by Kathrin Schmidt, translated by Sue Vickerman

Posted on November 5, 2021 by mandywight

This collection of short stories by Kathrin Schmidt, winner of the German book prize for her novel You’re Not Dying, is set in the former East Germany. Forty years of communism blow through many of the stories, not like a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in German, Books in Translation, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Vati- Daddy- by Monika Helfer

Posted on March 15, 2021 by mandywight

Vati, by Austrian writer Monika Helfer, follows on from her novel die Bagage, The Riff-Raff, which is an imaginative reconstruction of her grandmother’s life in rural Austria during the First World War. This time, Monika Helfer turns her attention to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books by Austrian writers, Books in German, Memoir, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Motherwell- A Girlhood-by Deborah Orr

Posted on October 25, 2020 by mandywight

Motherwell is a memoir by the late Guardian editor and columnist, Deborah Orr, who sadly died one year ago at the age of 57. She was brought up in Motherwell, just outside Glasgow, a town dominated by the Ravenscraig steelworks, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in English, Memoir, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Lowborn by Kerry Hudson at Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival.

Posted on November 11, 2019 by mandywight

I was lucky enough to hear Kerry Hudson speak at Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival in October. She was talking about her book Lowborn, an account of growing up in poverty in today’s Britain. The book had been recommended by … Continue reading →

Posted in Books in English, Uncategorized, Working Class Voices | Tagged , , | 2 Comments