Writing Home

(Paperback)

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Description

Nobody sees things quite like Polly Devlin. Her writing is witty, entertaining, spontaneous and idiosyncratic--and it nudges your vision of the world into a slightly different skew. In this collection she writes about lost dogs, Venetian palaces, married life, her Irish background, police brutality, rooks nesting, a museum in Paris, shopping with daughters-- everyday lives, especially women's lives, and the growth of their souls.

Reviews

"Required reading for women of 'd'un certain age', read it and smile."

* RTE.com *

"Polly nails with detail and devilment the very essence of an encounter or an issue. After a glimpse into that quicksilver mind whose interior we imagine is as eclectic, cluttered and joyful as the actual interiors she creates, we are the better for it....a treat."

* The Gloss *

"A glorious serendipitous mix of material...She retains a very clear voice that is her own. She's also a fantastic writer. She manages to convey a huge amount with a few well chosen words, so that after reading her book I feel I know her intimately and like her tremendously."

* The Chiswick Calendar *

"Whatever sets her going - and whatever her tone, whether angry, rueful, funny, exuberant, joyous or disabused - Polly Devlin's reflections make an impact. She is a champion of right thinking, up to the hilt in crusading commentary, always on the side of the angels."

* Dublin Review of Books *

"Eloquent and open-minded,Writing Home stands testimony to a life well-lived. It champions feminism as 'The F Word'. I'd add that it exemplifies the virtues of family and fearlessness."

* Country Life *

"I passionately love this book...the writing and the spirit, the cauldron of lives and language, the moral rigour, the observation...I wish I had published it."

-- Carmen Callil

"...affectionate sketches of friends including Nuala OFaolain and her brother-in-law Seamus Heaney...ring with truth and tenderness."

* Irish Times *

Author Bio

Polly Devlin is a writer, broadcaster and filmmaker. She holds an OBE for services to literature. After spending her childhood in Northern Ireland, at the age of twenty-two she took up her first job as a writer, and soon features editor, on British Vogue, at the heart of 1960s London. A couple of years later she was again transported, to New York, to work for Diana Vreeland on American Vogue where, once more, she was very much part of the scene she wrote about in her columns. Since then she has been a columnist on The Sunday Times, The New Statesman and The Observer, and has written many highly acclaimed books. Her first book, All of Us There, is now a Virago Modern Classic. The most recent, New York: Places to Write Home About (Pimpernel Press, 2017; published in the United States by Gibbs Smith, as New York: Behind Closed Doors) was greeted with delight on both sides of the Atlantic. She now divides her time between London and New York, where, until her recent retirement, she taught Creative Non-Fiction at Barnard College, Columbia University.