Press
“Mary Hamer’s Julius Caesar provides a stimulating and original reading . . . It avoids the rhetoric of the academy but introduces ways of thinking about the play which are informed by psychoanalytic and feminist thought and should give it a fresh significance for undergraduates.”
“illuminating new study . . .Mary Hamer is an ideal interpreter of Trollope. She understands and likes him. She writes clearly, pleasantly and with a blessed absence of jargon.”
“Mary Hamer has written a fascinating study of politics and desire, authority and sexuality . . .she studies the cultural interests Cleopatra’s image has served, from the prohibition of incest to the institution of coinage, from Newton’s optics to women’s suffrage, from the guillotine to the obelisk, and from Plutarch to Cecil B. de Mille”
REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWs
Publishers Weekly really likes Kipling & Trix: Hamer’s fictionalized account of the childhood of one of imperial Britain’s foremost authors (Rudyard Kipling) and his sister makes for an immersive reading experience. Born in Bombay Read more...
Journal of Child Psychotherapy - ACP CONFERENCE Review
'At the Conference’s opening presentation Mary Hamer shared with us her experience of researching for, and writing, the novel ‘Kipling & Trix’. It was during this presentation that I was reminded of reading Bion’s ‘The Long Weekend’ . . . For me the immediate link between both works was the near tangible experiences described, of the warmth, vibrancy and beauty that living in India had offered to both Rudyard Kipling and to Wilfred Bion during their early childhoods. I thought of the place of Ayah in these children’s lives.'
Eliza Gale Interviews Mary about writing Kipling & Trix, asking some really thoughtful questions...Read more...
The Kipling Journal
'Mary Hamer's novel about the lives of Rudyard Kipling and his sister Alice, 'Trix' to her family, is intelligent, vividly imagined and a real page-turner' - Professor Jan Montefiore, Kent University....Read full article here...
The Brown Book
'Mary Hamer's imaginative novel draws the unfolding scenes of Rudyard's and Trix's lives in an intimate, domestic and conversational style . . .This is immersive storytelling with a real lightness of touch, so that we are drawn with a sense of intimacy into the conversations and thoughts of the characters'.Read more...
Ink Pantry
'Kipling and Trix is a fascinating fictional portrayal of the life of Rudyard Kipling and his lesser known sister Alice (Trix). The novel juxtaposes their two stories in a way that highlights the complexities of the creative mind while subtly commenting on the different routes open to brother and sister, as well as the outside influences which direct their lives'.
Completely Novel
'Here at CompletelyNovel HQ we have just read Mary Hamer's award-winning novel Kipling & Trix, published by Aurora Metro Books. It's a fascinating read about the lives of Rudyard Kipling and his talented but little-known sister Trix. What particularly intrigued us was how she managed to write such a convincing fictionalised account of the lives of these two extraordinary historical characters'. Read more...
The Writes of Women
'Kipling & Trix, winner of The Virginia Prize for Fiction in 2012, is a fictionalised account of the life of Rudyard Kipling and his sister Alice 'Trix' Kipling. It begins with Rudyard, aged five, and Trix, aged three, being sent to live with 'Auntie Sarah' Holloway, her husband, Pryse Agar Holloway and their young son, Harry; Rudyard and Trix's own parents being busy establishing themselves in Lahore, their father having gained promotion to the position of Principal of the Mayo School of Art and Curator of the Lahore Museum.' Read more...
Pam Johnson Interviews Mary about writing Kipling and Trix on Words Unlimited
Mary Hamer's novel, Kipling & Trix, published this month, won The Virginia Prize For Fiction. The writing of Rudyard Kipling is known to millions but what of the work of his talented younger sister, Trix? Mary Hamer's novel explores dark episodes in the Kipling siblings’ childhood, and follows the reverberations through their adult lives. Here she explains her life-long fascination with Rudyard, describes her search for Trix and reveals four key things to consider when turning the facts of real lives into fiction'. Read more...
Emma Darwin recommends Kipling and Trix
'Meticulously imagined novel of Trix Kipling and her brother Rudyard growing up between England and India, which won the Virginia Prize. Mary Hamer is a Kipling expert, but applies her knowledge with a feather-light touch in lovely writing, which tells a fascinating story. Aurora Metro'.
Historical Novel Society
'Mary Hamer’s Kipling and Trix elegantly walks the borders between fact and fiction in her retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s story and his relationship with his sister Trix. She was also a writer, but by class rules.' Read more...
Morgan Bailey
What really got me into writing, at six years old, was getting a fountain pen for Christmas. I thought the word ‘fainted’ in The Wind in the Willows was so exciting that I underlined it. Read more...
Neon Magazine
'Kipling & Trix is the first novel to be published by Mary Hamer, who was previously a non-fiction author. It’s a fictionalised biography of Rudyard Kipling (famous writer, poet and Nobel Prize winner). Intriguingly, it’s also concerned with Kipling’s seldom-heard-of sister, Alice (nicknamed “Trix”). The story between its covers revolves around both, beginning with their shared childhood and following their two quite different paths through life. It’s an unexpectedly exciting read, and a deserved winner of the Virginia Prize for Fiction.'
Daily Mail
'Hamer's book opens up the complex world of the Kiplings, moving between continents and momentous world events.' Read more...
What Happens When You Win? Mary Hamer on The Virginia Prize
'When I saw the subject heading ‘The Virginia Prize for Fiction’, that October morning back in 2011, I braced myself, hardened to rejection. Hey, I wasn’t just a writer with a novel, Kipling & Trix, that 30 or more editors and agents had turned down, I was a convent girl, used to being squashed. I’d only been entering it for prizes in the hope that someone would consider it with attention.' Read more...