It is 20 years since Angela Carter died of lung cancer, aged 51. Since her premature death her reputation - already substantial - has soared. In Sunday's Observer New Review, Carter's literary executor, Susannah Clapp, wrote about her friend's approach to the business of writing and publishing: "For all her wild hair, Angela was careful. She was, as she put it, 'both concentrated and random'."
To mark this anniversary and to celebrate her books, we invite you to write a review of your favourite Carter creation, and we'll include a selection of them in our next books newsletter.
(Need an example? Take a look at Robert Nye's 1984 review of Nights of the Circus, entitled, A daring young woman. He writes: "She has made something of a speciality of novels and stories in which rusty Gothic weapons are repolished and then employed to open up some pretty modern wounds, finding new and intelligent uses for fantasy... Nights at the Circus, her new and most ambitious novel to date, breaks fresh ground for her both in content and style, and is without doubt her finest achievement so far, and a remarkable book by any standards.")
Once you've settled on the book you want to review, click on one of the links below and follow the instructions on the page, or visit Angela Carter's author page and scroll through the list until you find the title you're looking for.
• Angela Carter's book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women
• Black Venus
• Burning your Boats: Collected Short Stories
• Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings
• Fireworks
• Heroes and Villains
• Love
• Nights at the Circus
• Sea Cat and Dragon King
• Several Perceptions
• Shadow Dance
• Shaking a Leg Collected Journalism and Writing
• The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
• The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault
• The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
• The Magic Toy Shop
• The Passion of New Eve
• Wise Children