‘Too short for us’ ‘Too short’ ‘Not a novel’ ‘46,000 words is a novella’ Those are direct quotes from rejection letters about my first (go at writing a) novel. I mention this simply because The Sense of an Ending, at 150 pages, is about 46,000 words long, I reckon, give or take, which means by … More The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
My granddad liked a drink and a sing-song, and most of family stories about him have him indulging in one or the other or (more usually) both. Once, after a day on the ale during the Second World War – he’d fought in the First and was too old to be called up for the … More Small Island by Andrea Levy (what Cathy read when she broke her shoulder – part 2)
I’ll hold my hands up: with Day it was a case of third time lucky. I tried to read it twice and gave up twice before finally making it all the way through from the beginning to the end. Admittedly both the failed attempts were made in the small hours of the morning through the … More Day by A L Kennedy (what Cathy read when she broke her shoulder – part 1)
‘I did not know that a person could hold up a wall made of imaginary bricks and mortar against the horrors and cruel, dark tricks of time that assail us, and be the author therefore of themselves.’ So writes Roseanne McNulty, a centenarian patient in Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital, as she secretly puts pen to … More The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
This book won the Man Booker Prize in 2010 and so, since reading the Booker Prize winning books is something of a project for me – I’ve read all of them right back to the first winner in 1969 (yes, I really am that sad) – it was never not going to make it onto … More The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
This is the twelfth book by Barry Unsworth I’ve read, though it’s actually his first novel. Published in 1966 and (what a great year that was!) the story centres on two men, Foley and Moss, who have spent the last three years in Cornwall, sharing a house and working together to build up a cottage … More The Partnership by Barry Unsworth
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