iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

‘Allow me to put the record straight,’ she wrote to The Times letters page. ‘I am 46, and have been for some years past.’

When Brookner won the Booker Prize, she became a public figure, which led to one uncomfortable experience.
Before publishing her debut three years earlier, Brookner had altered her date of birth in the directory Who's Who from 1928 to 1938. After her Booker win, an eagle-eyed observer spotted the change and informed the press.
Private Eye (which referred to her winning novel as A Stroke du Luck) observed that 'nothing, it seems, can be more rejuvenating than winning the Booker Prize'. When the story was also covered in the Times, Brookner put pen to paper. 'Allow me to put the record straight, she wrote to their letters page. 'I am 46, and have been for some years past?

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

‘What I can’t understand,’ Brookner once said, ‘is the radical inauthenticity of some women’s novels that are written to a formula: from the peatbogs of Killarney to the penthouses of Manhattan, orgasms all the way!’

Brookner’s novels A Family Romance, A Private View, Incidents in the Rue Laugier and Altered States

Family and Friends, Brief Lives, A Closed Eye

A Start in Life, Providence, Look at Me, Hotel du Lac

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evelynmaryw.bsky.social @evelynmaryw.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

do you know the particular novels she was referring to-- peat bogs and penthouses--

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oxo @martinwellbourne71.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I hope "radical inauthenticity" gains traction as a term of abuse. I'll get out my black turtle neck.

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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

If I had a penny for every article I’ve seen this week that wrongly says Anita Brookner was 53 when she published her first novel, I’d have about 6p. (How hard can it be to check her month of birth in 1928 and the month in 1981 when the book was published?)

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