We can be short today: there will be no meeting with the women I’d like to talk to. They are beyond mediation – not that I’d be daring to offer that given the depth of the abyss between them. You have probably heard of each of them, after all they are both famous, justly prize winning writers, and some of their books have been made in to successful movies. (Possession – see review here http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/possession-2002 for one, The Waterfall for the other.)

Yes, I am talking of A.S. Byatt and Margaret Drabble, sisters known as much for their incredible gift as their unending feud. I just don’t get it  – yes, there was favoritism of one at home, yes there was a pushy mother making achievement into a competitive sport, yes, they both chose the same métier. But going to war over the use of a familial tea-set as a prop in one of your novels? Depriving yourself of the shared memories of childhood that bring such comfort in later years? Condemning each other for unfair reckoning with your parents in your novels?  Their loss. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8632911/Margaret-Drabble-Its-sad-but-our-feud-is-beyond-repair.html

I like to read them both, but am partial to Drabble, since she got to me early and in formative years when it came to feminism. Where Byatt seduces with a vivid, colorful narrative explosion, Drabble goes sparse but deep into psychological exploration. I still consider The Millstone a seminal book. Motherhood was never described more accurately within a feminist context.

(Review here:https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/15/the-millstone-the-crucial-1960s-feminist-novel)

Which brings me to the conclusion of this week: I like movies, I prefer books. I like the idea of meeting people who strike me as interesting, but would probably be at a loss if that really happened. Let’s keep it a fantasy.  See you next week.