Picador Books – Part 8 – Lamming, Lessing, Loos, Lustig, Mackey, Malouf & Marquez

Tonight it’s the L’s and some of the M’s, and to start it all is Caribbean born, George Lamming’s impressive Natives Of My Person, a rare book these days I guess. It is described as a compelling novel of slavery and colonisation and I recall when I first read it, I was very taken with it.

Now you don’t hear much about Doris Lessing these days, but she was a prolific writer and published books in various genres including Science Fiction.

Memoirs of a Survivor is a dystopian novel, which I must admit I can’t remember a thing about, but having rediscovered it in my bookcase will endeavour to reread soon.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and its sequel But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by the charming and very talented Anita Loos are also not seen much in the wild these days. Picador published two versions, firstly a sole volume of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, then a back to back edition of the two novels. They are a witty satirical look at the Flapper era of the 1920s and still well worth reading.

Doubled Up or My Life As The Back End of a Pantomime Horse by T J Lustig is a bizarre novel set in a circus.

Also bizarre is Mary Mackey’s, McCarthy’s List, not set in a circus, but in a Mexican gaol, where the heroine is languishing awaiting execution for a murder she didn’t commit, though she is responsible for many others.

On another note altogether is Australian author David Malouf’s The Great World.

And finally for this post, several Gabriel Garcia Marquez novels in Picador editions.

The rest of the ‘M‘ authors to follow shortly.