Reading the 20th Century discussion

It's that time again RTTC'ers....


For our February 2026 group read we invite you to nominate anything written or set in the twentieth century century


Yes, it's *wild card month* and so once again so the choice is yours


Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss


Happy nominating

I'll nominate a 2025 book which is firmly set in the early twentieth century and which I like the sound of....



Green Ink

by

Stephen May



Blurb and review snippets below

Sounds right up our collective street eh?.....



David Lloyd George is at Chequers for the weekend with his mistress Frances Stevenson, fretting about the fact that his involvement in selling public honours is about to be revealed by one Victor Grayson. Victor is a bisexual hedonist and former firebrand socialist MP turned secret-service informant. Intent on rebuilding his profile as the leader of the revolutionary Left, he doesn't know exactly how much of a hornet's nest he's stirred up. Doesn't know that this is, in fact, his last day.

No one really knows what happened to Victor Grayson – he vanished one night in late September 1920, having threatened to reveal all he knew about the prime minister's involvement in selling honours. Was he murdered by the British government? By enemies in the socialist movement (who he had betrayed in the war)? Did he fall in the Thames drunk? Did he vanish to save his own life, and become an antiques dealer in Kent?

Whatever the truth, Green Ink imagines what might have been with brio, humour and humanity; and is a reminder that the past was once as alive as we are today.



Reviews....

'Intrigue, betrayal, redemption - a glimpse behind the political scenes of a bygone British era that feels very contemporary' - Rachel Seiffert

'Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events, which he then gives the fictional treatment' - The Times Books to Look Out For In 2025

'Funny, scurrilous, revealing and memorable' - Historical Novel Society

'May has a nose for historical curiosities ... good at capturing the cynical mood of the 1920s, the world of flappers and traumatised veterans and corrupt swells ... Clever and playful' - Robbie Millen, The Times

'An idiosyncratic, rather dreamlike novel: it doesn’t so much bring history to life as use a clutch of historical figures to showcase the author’s own captivatingly offbeat intelligence' - Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph

‘A vivid and wholly credible recreation of post-Great War London – that threadbare, incendiary world of shabby intrigue, half-remembered figures now lost to the shadows, and an old order desperate to reestablish its corrupt credentials and squandered authority. All is imagined here in convincing and sardonic – and frequently hilarious – detail. Following the success of Sell Us The Rope, Stephen May has truly hit his stride’ - Robert Edric

'Green Ink is a wonderful confection – with obvious echoes today – and has a prose style as nimble as a maître d at rush hour' - Crack Magazine, Book of the Month

'An intriguing mystery that cuts the mustard as a political thriller and a literary historical novel ... Witty but sinister nonetheless, with contemporary resonance' - Crime Time FM

‘May has found his forte speculating on the ‘what ifs’ of history. That he imbues his story with a rallying call for feminism and neatly solves the mystery surrounding the narrator only further increases my admiration for this very fine and fun novel’ - Susie Mesure, The Spectator

'In his compelling new novel Stephen May engages with one of the great mysteries in British political history' - Unseen Histories

‘May skilfully orchestrates a large cast of both historical and fictional characters … the novel’s period detail is impeccable … One of its chief pleasures is the authorial voice, which, with its maxims on pity, ambition, boredom and so forth, is of an omniscience rarely encountered in contemporary fiction’ - Financial Times

'Striking and entertaining, with something joyful on every page ... this is a novel that uses history as its springboard ... prose is sharp and bright, with a nice aphoristic quality that makes each page seem nutritious. Green Ink is a grand, provocative entertainment' - John Self, The Critic

Praise for Sell Us the Rope

‘Original, adept and confident... What can I say, except that I wish I had written it myself?’ Hilary Mantel

‘A deeply satisfying novel. Incisive, inventive, frequently very funny’ Guardian

‘Historical facts furnish May with a cast of legends to bring to life, and he does it with verve and humour’ The Times

‘Brilliant and original ― part historical novel, part romantic comedy, and part bildungsroman about a tyrant-in-waiting’ Marcel Theroux

‘A captivating thought-experiment that marks a consolidation of May’s powers as a writer' Daily Telegraph

Continuing the history vibe, I will nominate The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary by Susannah Cahalan.

The untold story of the woman who played a critical role in bringing psychedelics into the mainstream—until her audacious exploits forced her into the shadows—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire

Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time.

Long overlooked by those who have venerated her husband, Rosemary spent her life on the forefront of the counterculture, working with Leary on his books and speeches, sewing his clothing, and shaping—for better and for worse—the media’s narrative about LSD. Ultimately, Rosemary sacrificed everything for the safety of her fellow psychedelic pioneers and the preservation of her husband’s legacy.

Drawing from a wealth of interviews, diaries, archives, and unpublished sources, Susannah Cahalan writes the definitive portrait of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, reclaiming her narrative and her voice from those who dismissed her. Page-turning, revelatory, and utterly compelling, The Acid Queen shines an overdue spotlight on a pioneering psychedelic seeker.

Fantastic nomination - sounds fascinating Blaine


It would make a great companion read with The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), which I haven't read for decades

Gosh, that's come round fast!

Following up on a recent conversation here that we've somehow never read Margaret Atwood in this group, I will nominate my absolute favourite book from her, The Blind Assassin:

Margaret Atwood takes the art of storytelling to new heights in a dazzling novel that unfolds layer by astonishing layer and concludes in a brilliant and wonderfully satisfying twist. Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.

It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.

Set in Canada, this straddles a large part of the twentieth century through the various layers of stories, and opened my eyes to how Canada differs from America (sorry, friends over the pond - the two were previously conflated in my head!) But, most of all, it's the wonderful, rich storytelling and the voices which makes this so great. It's chunky but it's February - and there's even at least one love story that makes this also appropriate for Valentine's ❤️

Green Ink is on my TBR list so I won't nominate this month. Happy to read it if it wins and buddy read if it doesn't.

Susan wrote:


"Green Ink is on my TBR list so I won't nominate this month. Happy to read it if it wins and buddy read if it doesn't."


Thank Susan - good to know

I thought it would one that would appeal to you

Strong nominstion RC


The Blind Assassin is a classic

I am nominating Monkey Grip by Helen Garner 1977 245pp

I mentioned that I was planning to nominate this previously since I ma reading the author's diaries despite having never written any of her other published work. The author is known for fiction and nonfiction and this is her first novel depicting Australian counter-culture of the time with a narrative about a woman in love with a drug addict.
Won National Book Council Banjo Award for Fiction (1978)

I was planning to nominate a Toni Morrison title, but I'm going to hold off in light of RC's nomination of The Blind Assassin. To date, the only Margaret Atwood I have read that was not dystopia was Hag-Seed. This looks like it might also not be dystopia--am I right? It's been on my "maybe one day I should" list since it came out, so I am loathe to add to the competition.

G wrote: "This looks like it might also not be dystopia--am I right?"

Yes, this is a realist story of two sisters set against the history of 1930s/40s Canada, with a later present-day strand. However, there is an inset story-within-the-story told by one character to another which is ostensibly set in a fantasy universe (but is offering an oblique take on their present).

G wrote: "I was planning to nominate a Toni Morrison title"

Another great writer we haven't read in this group. I have the feeling that Morrison is a bit divisive as she is confrontational and not all readers want to have to face the emotional trauma that fills so many of her books. Personally, I love her.

Thanks all


Thanks Sam for the Helen Garner nomination

Nigeyb wrote: "I'll nominate a 2025 book which is firmly set in the early twentieth century and which I like the sound of....



Green Ink

by

Stephen May



Blurb and review sn..."

Sounds good. Doesn't come out here until March.

If it wins, or we do a buddy, you can join in when it comes out in March. There's nothing better than a thread revival.

Roman Clodia wrote: "G wrote: "I was planning to nominate a Toni Morrison title"

Another great writer we haven't read in this group. I have the feeling that Morrison is a bit divisive as she is confrontational and not..."

Morrison has surpassed Atwood as my favorite, but I'm doing an Atwood focus next year to catch up some I've missed and The Blind Assassin is near the top of my list, so will definitely get my vote! Meantime I'll be thinking of Morrison titles to nominate someday that are less confrontational ... hmm ...

Kathleen wrote: "Morrison has surpassed Atwood as my favorite"

It's so hard to compare them, isn't it, as they're both wonderful but write very differently. I tend to think that Morrison's books feel like a kick in the guts and leave me an emotional wreck! Atwood doesn't leave me quite so devastated - which isn't to say she's not also an emotive writer or that Morrison isn't also a thinking and intellectual writer...

Roman Clodia wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Morrison has surpassed Atwood as my favorite"

It's so hard to compare them, isn't it, as they're both wonderful but write very differently. I tend to think that Morrison's books f..."

Oh yes, it is hard to compare, and I agree with your points about both of them. I should clarify Morrison just became even more beloved (no pun intended!) by me, not that I think she's better. When I read them, I often end up thinking about Atwood: she's so smart, and about Morrison, she's so wise. Lots to be appreciated about both authors!

This discussion puts me more in the mood for Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts about which I am hearing good things and On Morrison by Namwali Serpell due in February.

I hadn't heard of the Serpell so thanks for drawing attention to it. There is an established critical literature on Morrison, as we'd expect.

Kathleen, yes! Wise and smart is how I usually feel too after reading them - them, that is, not me!

Nominations...


Green Ink by Stephen May
The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary by Susannah Cahalan
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Monkey Grip by Helen Garner


I'll get the poll up on Friday morning UK time so about 36 hours to get your nomination in

VOTE VOTE VOTE (or change your vote)....



https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...



Nominations...

Green Ink by Stephen May
The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary by Susannah Cahalan
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

Fairly certain I saw the film Monkey Grip with Noni Hazelhurst many, many years ago.

There are only 4 books in the vote, Nigeyb. Woodruff Leary is missing.

Woodruff Leary by Susannah Cahalan is not a separate book but the end of the rather lengthy Acid Queen book title….


The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary

Blind Assassin has taken an early lead

Oh, sorry! Don't use your phone - I will never learn!

Blind Assassin surely has an unassailable lead ☝🏼

It is never too early to think about buddy reads. Both Acid Queen and Green Ink look as entertaing as informative and I would not mind one or both.

Susan and I are up for a Green Ink buddy read in February - please feel free to join in


The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary looks good but is very expensive to buy in the UK and not available in my library service so, for now at least, I'll have to pass on that one

That said, I daresay Blaine will be up for a buddy read with you Sam. Blaine?