Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writings
Jenny Uglow (ed.)

Chatto & Windus, 1997

One of contemporary literature’s most original and affecting novel and short story writers, Angela Carter also wrote brilliant nonfiction. Shaking a Leg comprises the best of her essays and criticism, much of it collected for the first time. Carter’s acute observations are spiked with her pungent honesty, her devastating wit, her penchant for mockery, and her passion for the absurd. Whether discussing films or food, feminism or fantasy, science fiction or sex, Carter consistently explores new territories and overturns old ideas.

From her hilarious deconstruction of Gone With the Wind and a delightfully wicked description of a Japanese fertility festival to enchanting accounts of her early childhood adventures or the irreverent reevaluations of D. H. Lawrence, H. P. Lovecraft, and Elizabeth David, this marvelous companion to Burning Your Boats, which collected Carter’s short fiction, firmly places her among the most accomplished writers of this century. Exuberant, fierce, and dazzling, Shaking a Leg will satisfy her ever increasing legion of readers.

Research Assistant Charlotte Crofts

IMAGE: © Angela Carter / Original cover for Jenny Uglow (ed.),  Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writings (Chatto & Windus, 1997).