In case you've been wondering where Jenny Diski is, here's her report from St. Helena:
After Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to St Helena. He died there in 1821, and eventually Longwood House, where he stayed with his retinue of 30, and the surrounding acres were given to the French (hence the honorary French consul). Captain Cook, Captain Bligh and Darwin all dropped by on their way to somewhere else. But in 1834 it came under Crown control and the East India employees were left destitute by the company to make do as they may. And when, in 1869, the Suez Canal opened and steam ships became more common, no longer needing the trade winds to blow them eastwards, the island of St Helena became an impoverished, forgotten backwater.
Diski has a new book, Apology for the Woman Writing due out this November (in the UK) from Virago.
She is - by far - one of the more fascinating writers I have discovered. Her writing is achingly personal while still managing to retain some level of distance between author and reader. The essay is a favorite form of mine - both to read and write - and I consider her to be a master at it. Skating to Antarctica is both honest and bracing - give it a go if you want to read deeply of a writer whose eye is both unflinching and ever curious.
