This book is published by the Norfolk based multi-award winning small press Galley Beggar， run by Elly Miller and Sam Jordison and whose past books include “We That Are Young”， “Lucia” and “A Girl is a Half Formed Thing” and of course the wonderful “Ducks， Newburyport” by Lucy Ellmann。 That novel was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize （where it would have made a much better joint winner with “Girl， Woman， Other” than “The Testaments） and was the deserved as well as unsurprising winner of the This book is published by the Norfolk based multi-award winning small press Galley Beggar， run by Elly Miller and Sam Jordison and whose past books include “We That Are Young”， “Lucia” and “A Girl is a Half Formed Thing” and of course the wonderful “Ducks， Newburyport” by Lucy Ellmann。 That novel was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize （where it would have made a much better joint winner with “Girl， Woman， Other” than “The Testaments） and was the deserved as well as unsurprising winner of the 2019 Goldsmith Prize （a prize for innovative fiction - it being a huge tribute to Galley Beggar that they have won that prize twice in its 8 year history）。“Ducks， Newburyport” was of course a near one thousand page internal dialogue/stream of consciousness of a Ohio woman， with her reflecting on both the minutiae of her every day life alongside the state of the nation （particularly on the Trump presidency）， on fiction （particularly that of Laura Ingalls Wilder）， classic cinema （including Ingrid Bergman） and on the many issues of a patriarchal society （and world） including climate change， industrial pollution， male violence， mass shootings。 The book was perhaps best known for its brilliant use of “the fact that” as a highly effective form of punctuation and rhythm， as for example in this， now rather prescient passage at the end of a lengthy passage around agro-industry “the fact that now Ben tells me bird flu only has to mutate a few more times to cause a global pandemic like Spanish flu and that， if that happens， civilisation will grind to a halt within a year， the fact that I know it’s terrible of me but I can’t help hoping the guy with the scary dog will be one of the first to go”Around the publication Lucy Ellmann gave a number of frank interviews in the press， typically in the Question and Answer format， which lead to some faux-controversy （largely if not entirely by people who in true Twitter style were taking things not so much out of context as not even in distant orbit of context） about her forthright （but nuanced） views on motherhood and her apparent （but reasoned） dismissal of genre fiction。See for example: https://www。theguardian。com/books/201。。。 and https://www。theguardian。com/books/201。。。。 Note that both of these interviews are explicitly addressed and expanded upon in this book。This book I feel continues on the strengths and themes of both “Ducks， Newburyport” and the author’s wider writing – but in the form of a non-fiction essay collection。 The essays themselves consist of a number published earlier （for example four of the lengthiest previously published in 2015-17 in the American journal “The Baffler”） and some new ones commissioned for this collection。A few examples of the essays:The book opens with the titular essay， which is the one most stylistically reminiscent of “Ducks， Newburyport” with its wide ranging subject matter drawn together by the repeated use of “THINGS” – as in this passage which inadvertently appears to summarise the plot of Galley Beggar’s previous publication “Insignificance” by James Clammer。 All I am saying is that， if THINGS can go wrong， they will。 THINGS let us down。 THINGS fail us。 Plumbing！ What could be a more intimidating THING than that？ THINGS outwit us …。 THINGS pester us， THINGS try to bring you down。 There are two essays featuring female artists in Ducks， Newburyport: “The Woman of the House” and “A Spell of Patriarchy” which focus respectively on the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder and its interaction with feminism， and on the patriarchy the film “Spellbound” with Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck （“Ducks， Newburyport” also has lots of peck but more of the hen variety）“Trapped Family Fingers” is a kind of （A） to （Z） of Trump’s America with an （A） to （Z） of hoped for solutions – an essay written in 2019 with two more optimistic 2021 footnotes“The Lost Art of Staying Put” – a challenge to those of us who spent our pre lockdown lives on a plane （I even read a proof of “Ducks， Newburyport” while stranded for 18 hours in Gander， Newfoundland after an emergency landing of my then regular transatlantic commute）。“Take the Money Honey” – an exhortation for women to embrace a matriarchal society （something which the author says on a number of occasions in the collection is the return to the natural order of things before all of the distortions and horrors which have resulted from millennia of patriarchy） and which as a footnote addresses in detail the Guardian comments on motherhood。“Ah， Men” is a previously unpublished essay which starts as general musings about the patriarchy and male obsession， and which when reaches crime switches to a very detailed and forcefully argued expansion of the author’s views on crime fiction （with a reference to her Guardian article） and how it feeds off and reinforces male violence – concluding with the devastating rejoinder: “How about working on the unsolved crimes of environmental devastation instead 。。”But the undoubted highlight is the quite brilliant and massively thought provoking “Three Strikes”， modelled very explicitly on Virginia Woolf’s “Three Guineas” including extremely copious footnotes which form a parallel essay in itself。 This essay includes the phrase used in some of the blurbs for the book; “There are three forms of strike I’d recommend: a housework strike， a labour strike， and a sex strike。 I can’t wait for the first two” which while conveying the dry humour that permeates the writing might lead people to underestimate how both hard hitting and how complex this essay is – with the paragraph actually continuing: Whilst the ultimate object of all three of them is female supremacy， each strike would also focus on adjunct causes in women’s interest: （1） environmental and animal justice; （2） peace and nuclear disarmament; and （3） you guessed it， female appropriation of wealth， property and power。 Overall: For any fans of “Ducks， Newburyport” this is a must read; For those who perhaps reacted badly to some of the Twitter storms a chance to really understand the author’s worldview; For those new to her work， perhaps an introduction to it which will I think inevitably lead to wanting to read “Ducks， Newburyport”。Highly recommended。 。。。more