h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Alan Hollinghurst - Author - A87824677
Author: SashaQ - towel - U9936370

An Entry about one of my favourite authors.

Thank you for this.

I'd heard of The Line of Beauty, but didn't know much about Alan Hollingshurst.

It sounds as if Hollingshurst accepted his own homosexuality without struggle. Is that the case?

One factual point - Sigfried Sasson was one of the few First World War poets who did survive the war. His post war poetry was less remarkable.

A short, sharp article – well done!

I must admit I've not read anything by Alan Hollinghurst and so I did have a few questions after reading this, if I may?

In 'The Swimming-Pool Library' When was the character Lord Nantwich alive? I was unsure of whether this was a biography of a living or historical figure, although I assume a still-living character that Beckwith meets?

When were 'The Spell' and 'The Stranger's Child' published?

In 'The Stranger's Child' section, you say that Alan wanted to write a biography of Ronald Firbank, but was not allowed access to Firbank's letters. You then mention Rupert Brooke's letters. Were these letters written to or about Firbank? Who wrote the biography of Firbank that was published? Can you clarify whether or not it was Alan who did this, and whether these letters that had prevented Alan from doing so earlier were consulted.

When you write 'It is also about his life alongside real historical figures such as the poet Siegfried Sassoon, and the biographies that were produced in the many years after his untimely death in the First World War' do you mean Sassoon's death or the death of the fictional character, Valance?

Also, was Alan involved at all in the 2006 television adaptation of his work? If not, do we know what his reaction to the series was?

Enjoyable articles often leave me wanting to know more!

<BB<

Thanks MVP I added in a bit more detail of Hollinghurst's life

Thanks BB

I have mentioned that Lord Nantwich is alive and meets William, added dates to the two other novels, and clarified the two unclear paragraphs.

I also added a bit more detail of the TV series

Good points all

That's great – thanks for those changes.

The only thing now that I would possibly consider doing is re-ordering this sentence:

'Somewhat disappointing to readers expecting more passion and less context, and snubbed by people who hadn't liked The Spell because it didn't have a traditional plot3, The Line of Beauty initially struggled to find a publisher, but went on to win the Man Booker Prize in 2004.'

I know exactly what you mean, but chronologically it seems to be in the wrong order. It reads like:

Readers expecting more passion were disappointed
People who didn't like 'The Spell' snubbed it
It then struggled to find a publisher
It won the Man Booker Prize in 2004

I'll let you decide whether you agree.

<BB<

Thanks BB - good point indeed.

I have reordered the sentence to make it clear that readers wanting passion could only read it after it had been published but critics of The Spell ignored it before it was published.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done SashaQ!

<BB<

Yes, well done and thanks for introducing me to yet another book (Reading the Swimming pool library at the moment...)

Thank you!

I hope you enjoy the book, 2legs I know I did

I guess you finished Maurice - I hope you liked that one, too *makes a note on my Entry to-do list*

Maurice was brillient thanks! Think I finished that before Christmas.... certainly a while ago; since then I read some Hardy poetry (hmmm.... didn't enjoy that as much as I thought I would; I love his novels), and then I read a translation of the iliad (OK, I confess; I got part* way through the iliad, tehn gave up, ), and also read quite a few of my err, online 'books', of a ... err, nature (slash fiction I believe its called... ) and then I went through one of my periods of just not being able to decide what to read, so ended up reading nothing and now I'm reading the swimming-pool library
Interesting for me, as its an insight into perceptions and suchlike of the 80s, and all that, plus, of course, the book goes back even further historically, into views and suchlike on homosexuality etc...
I really like his writing style... sort of 'old fashioned' in some respects... soem fo the descriptions and details I love; like describing the various states of 'light coming into the flat', at his flat, and how that kind of mirrors changes in what is happeing in his life (Mind, I'm only, err, maybe a third through it so far) The more, erotic/purely sexual bits, are not overdone, or badly done (which is a plesent change from much of the Slash fiction I soemtimes read ) but, sort of 'fits' into the actual story, not just gratutiously 'thrown in', as it were The writing style is good though, that is definatly soemthing I need to hold my attention when reading a book... Actually, I oughta go read some more now, once I've done a bit more work on my guide entry and research for it I've had another couple ideas for guide entrys, but really not sure they'd be suitable for h2g2

oh, and sorry; I just realised when I replied, in this thread earlier; although I'd read the article, whilst it was in PR, I clearly then never actually commented in this thread, until after it got picked I don't know, mind like a err, leaky thing with holes in, and concentration like a , err, what was I saying?