The soothing, mild-chilled nights of August make you wish for a cozy partner and some alone time.” – Anonymous A Woman of my Age’ by Nina Bawden: A woman begins to question everything about her life and her marriage when she goes on holiday to Morocco with her husband. In short, the novel bored me to death. Maybe another Edna O'Brien book might be better but this one wasn't it for me. It can be summarized as: If June was the beginning of a hopeful summer, and July the juice middle, August was suddenly feeling like the bitter end.” – Sarah Dessen Quotes on the Magic That August Brings

rish," says Ellen, the heroine of Edna O'Brien's new novel, summarizing herself to an unwanted companion in a Riviera beach hotel: "Irish, cottage, O’Brien began to produce sketches and tales during childhood. She received a strict Irish Catholic convent education and went on to study pharmacy in Dublin, where she received a license in 1950. In 1952 she married the novelist Ernest Gebler, with whom she had two sons. In 1959 the couple moved to London, where O’Brien turned to writing as a full-time occupation. She was divorced from Gebler in the mid-1960s. The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose – there’s no one like Edna O’Brien … Beautiful.’ Anne EnrightI don't regret reading this slim volume, but I can't say that I will be recommending it to very many people either. I had a hunt to find this copy, but it won't be staying in my home library. I will give it freedom to join another reader who appreciates it more than I do. We’ll spend time during the afternoon on exercises designed to nourish your creative impulses, and we’ll have time for a Q and A about the changing industry that is publishing today. How sociable the garden was. We ate and talked in the given light. The children put their toys on the grass. All the warm wakeful August night.” – Thom Gunn Great Quotes to Celebrate the Start of August

When summer opens, I see how fast it matures and fears it will be short, but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing to the cool of autumn.” – Ralph Waldo EmersonThis book explores the complex feelings of balancing your identity between your inner self, a self who is a wife, and a mother. Edna O’Brien in April 1966, when she was being portrayed in the press as a party girl. Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images