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Rosanna Mclaughlin
Rosanna Mclaughlin is an editor at The White Review.

Articles Available Online


The Pious and the Pommery

Essay

Issue No. 18

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Essay

Issue No. 18

I.   Where is the champagne? On second thoughts this is not entirely the right question. The champagne is in the ice trough, on...

Essay

April 2019

Ariana and the Lesbian Narcissus

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Essay

April 2019

‘Avoid me not!’ ‘Avoid me not!’                                   Narcissus   Let me describe a GIF I’ve been watching. A lot....

I have told the story of my grandparents’ arrival in England countless times Their bags, their passports, even the car that picked them up It was a blue Rolls Royce, sent from the family in whose huge country house they would work, an auspicious sign for my grandfather: England was going to be good to them They had left Portugal in 1971, during the last years of the regime of António de Oliveira Salazar – a name familiar to me both from the story of my grandparents’ departure, and from the Harry Potter series Reading the books as a young child, I came to imagine that the historical figure I heard about from my family was also the figure in the books I was reading: Rowling had had a Portuguese partner, and so knew that Salazar’s name stood for something bad The fantasy series seemed, to me, to be grounded in a reality I felt I somehow, obliquely, had a stake in   This resonance between history and fiction seems fitting, because throughout my life I have come to relate my family’s journey as a story, even though I know it to be true The narrative of my grandparents’ move to England is so familiar to me: I know what my mother saw, standing on a balcony in Cartaxo, watching soldiers march on a protest my grandparents took part in; I know about secret police and disappearances, and my grandfather being on a blacklist and not being able to get work I feel sure in the details, and perhaps take liberties with some of them, as I recount these tales to friends in pubs, describe my grandparents’ experiences as cleaners or hospital porters in a Marxism and creative writing seminar, or in casual conversation Or in this writing here   But I don’t repeat the facts without some trepidation I have learnt parts of the story, but not the way to tell it I always feel guilty, as if I’m using it to present myself, rather than describing real things that happened to people I love It’s hard to know the right tone

Contributor

July 2016

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Contributor

July 2016

Rosanna Mclaughlin is an editor at The White Review.

Ten Years at Garage Moscow

Art Review

November 2018

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Art Review

November 2018

When I arrive in Moscow, I am picked up from the airport by Roman, a patriotic taxi driver sent to collect me courtesy of...
Becoming Alice Neel

Art

August 2017

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Art

August 2017

From the first time I saw Alice Neel’s portraits, I wanted to see the world as she did. Neel was the Matisse of the...

READ NEXT

poetry

November 2012

Mr Minotaur

Simon Pomery

poetry

November 2012

Hey Mr Minotaur, so red, so neatly hunchbacked on account of your thick neck, ready to headbutt victims to...

feature

May 2013

Haneke's Lessons

Ricky D'Ambrose

feature

May 2013

‘Art is there to have a stimulating effect, if it earns its name. You have to be honest, that’s...

Prize Entry

April 2016

Mute Canticle

Leon Craig

Prize Entry

April 2016

Giulio the singing fascist came to pick me up from the little airport in his Jeep. He made sure...

 

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