"A testament to how sexy and personal a film about politics can be. Though the film could have been preachy or shrill, the story’s aperture stays tightly focused on the shifting feelings of its protagonists, how their understanding of the politics around them begins to change, how they feel about themselves and, in turn, how willing they are to love with abandon. And finally, it showed me how valuable a small gem of comedy is: Daniel Day-Lewis telling beautiful women to take off their clothes because he is a doctor (a lie) serves as a touchstone of rakish charm throughout the most dire moments of the movie."

"This relates to my Maggie O’Farrell obsession. She recommended Lucia Berlin in an interview I read a few years ago. So, like any good stalker, I checked it out. These stories feel very contemporary. I suppose if I’ve learned anything from reading, it’s that people don’t change very much through the ages. Our personal problems and our joys are entirely relatable, whatever the era. The women Berlin writes about seem entirely real. You can feel them in the room with you. There is humor and real beauty in her words. If I was the underlining type, these books would be heaving with biro. But I’m no vandal."

"The novel is set in three parts in the Ramsays' summer home, on the Isle of Skye. On the surface, Mrs. Ramsay — the devoted mother and matriarch of the family, and Lily Briscoe — a female artist committed to personal autonomy, stand in stark contrast of each other. Mrs Ramsay appears to have it all, but underneath, the responsibilities of being an ideal woman — a wife and mother — is slowly killing her. Throughout the first part of the book, Mrs. Ramsay is almost never without her knitting, a fact that becomes even more prominent in her absence, when the remaining characters return to the summer house after Mrs Ramsay’s death."