Whether it's anticipating the fortune cookie at the end of a meal or simply looking under a cap sometimes there is irony with those words of wisdom.  

Jean Rhys

another writer i have been reading is Jean Rhys. This pocket sized book, La Grosse Fifi has four short stories; La Grosse Fifi, Vienne, Tea with an Artist and Mixing Cocktails. Due to the fact that all eight-five pages had caught my attention, i found this...

Tigers Are Better Looking; first edition, 1968, Andre Deutsch Limited. Not only does it have the four short stories from La Grosse Fifi, which were a selection of stories from The Left Bank. It has fourteen other short stories.


During World War One Jean Rhys volunteered in a soldiers canteen. While her third husband was in jail she went to go live with English writer Ford Maddox Ford, whom she met in Paris, and his long time partner, Stella Brown.   Soon after an affair ensued. By 1940 she seemed to have disappeared from the public eye until she published her novel, Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966. For which she won the W.H. Smith Literary Award for in 1967. 

Street Songs

after reading about Edith Sitwell i was determined to find some of her work. and i did just that. i found this 1943, second edition of Street Songs. not handwritten, it is dedicated to her brother, British writer Osbert Sitwell and contains the poem Still Falls The Rain, about the London blitz. the book only has 34 pages but the collection of poems are beautifully crafted. interesting note about Sitwell, she would knit clothes for her friends who served in the army. one of her friends was actor Alec Guinness for whom she knit a pair of sea boot stockings.  - jw