126 F U RT H E R R E A D I N G A N D W E B R E S O U R C E S the fantastic variety of highly entertaining short tales from around the world, provide an important context for Carter’s use of fairy tale and magical realism in Nights at the Circus Jenny Uglow (ed.), Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1998 A collection of most of Carter’s most memorable short non-fiction, including contributions to books, and journalism (articles and reviews), from sources such as New Society, the New Statesman, New Review, the Guardian and the London Review of Books Those which have most relevance for Nights at the Circus and are therefore cited in this book are: ‘Notes from the Front Line’ (pp 36–42) in which she discusses her relationship to feminism and its impact on her writing, ‘Masochism for the Masses’ (pp 189–95), which deals with the impact of Margaret Thatcher and ‘Thatcherite’ politics on British culture and society, ‘Fun Fairs’ (pp 340–4) which is about the concept of ‘fun’ and the place of the fairground in the history of popular culture in Britain, and ‘In Pantoland’ (pp 393–9), which is an enthusiastic celebration of British pantomime for all its glamour, vulgarity and gender confusion Adaptations Kneehigh Theatre’s musical production of Nights at the Circus, mentioned in the ‘Introduction’, has been published as a script: Tom Morris and Emma Rice, Nights at the Circus, London: Oberon Books, 2006 For reviews see: Michael Billington, ‘Nights at the Circus’, The Guardian, 27 January 2006 Susannah Clapp, ‘The Greatest Swinger in Town’, Observer, 29 January 2006 Ian Johns, ‘Nights at the Circus’, The Times, 30 January 2006 Paul Taylor, ‘Nights at the Circus, Lyric Hammersmith’, Independent, 27 January 2006 John Thaxter, ‘Nights at the Circus’, Stage, February 2006 Post-war Britain There are a great many accounts available of British culture and society during the period of Carter’s life and specifically of her writing of Nights at the Circus Among these, Peter Clarke’s Hope and Glory: Britain 1900–2002 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2004) provides a very detailed picture of the political, social and economic changes that have changed and shaped British society since the turn of the century Alastair Davies and Alan Sinfield’s British Culture of the Post-War (London: Routledge, 2000) is particularly useful for the way in which it maps changes in British society onto specific developments within the arts (visual arts, literature and cinema) The chapters by Alastair Davies, Drew Milne and Alan Sinfield are particularly useful Alan Sinfield’s Literature, Politics and Culture in Postwar Britain (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989) is similarly interesting, as Sinfield specifically traces connections between political change and literary innovation in the post-war period For those not familiar with