It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up.
This month we begin with Wifedom by Anna Funder, subtitled ‘Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life’.
It feels like an easy option to link to Animal Farm by George Orwell but I’m choosing it for a very particular reason – when I was quite little, my dad read it to me as a bedtime story.
He did the same with For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke. That might seem a strange choice for a bedtime story but I suspect it was influenced by the fact that Clarke’s book was turned into a miniseries. The eighties was the golden age of the miniseries, when the whole family eagerly awaited the next dramatic installment (and we were always allowed to stay up late for these tele-visual feasts).
Another eighties miniseries based on a book (that I was absolutely captivated by) was Ruth Park’s The Harp in the South.
Park’s book is set in Depression-era Sydney, as is Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor.
My next link is to Vida by Jacqueline Kent, on the basis that both are books about Australian female historical figures with their name as the title.
Two books in a row with a woman’s name as the title – lets make it three. The most recent I read that fits the category is Becky by Sarah May.
From the Orwells and Australian classics to the Depression. Where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (October 7, 2023), we’ll start with a classic – I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
