The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: The Merchant of Venice, Act 4 Scene 1 At the time of writing I’m not long back from Stratford-upon-Avon and a … More The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth
Like most bibliophiles I’m a sucker for a second hand bookshop. The kind where ‘antiquarian’ or ‘vintage’ books rub alongside contemporary offerings, maybe with a smattering of old maps, prints, and postcards thrown in for good measure. The kind with a faint air of fustiness but never of neglect, and where everything is ordered, though … More Doctor Copernicus by John Banville
When I was five I had a my first boyfriend. I’d play at his house and he’d play at mine, and in summer we’d play by the River Alt. This was when kids allowed to wander wherever provided you weren’t alone and home in time for tea. He liked the caramel wafer biscuits they sold … More Bluebeard’s Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
During World War II US troops were stationed in Liverpool at a barracks not far from where my granddad, Martin Nesbitt, lived. The story goes that one day Martin, too old to be conscripted, boarded a tram full of US soldiers. In one part of the car were white GIs and in another, keeping apart, … More The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Sundays were slow days when I was growing up. The shops were shut, and there were no computers, no internet, no dvds, and no on-demand tv. When the weather was good we played outside and when it was wet there were books, cards, dominoes, chess, draughts, jigsaws, a family games compendium and, when nothing else … More How To Be Both by Ali Smith
When I was a child I remember my mum having a blue and white plate. It was in the style of Chinese willow pattern but the stamp on the back said ‘made in Japan’, and depicted a kimono clad figure of indeterminate sex standing on an arched bridge over a softly flowing river, dwarfed by … More An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
Have you heard of The Satanic Verses? Probably, yes, if only because of the furore following its publication: accusations of blasphemy and a fatwa against the author, Salman Rushdie. And The Comforts of Madness? I’d guess not; at the specialist second-hand bookshop where I found my copy, the staff recognised neither the book nor the … More The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer
Once bitten, twice shy? If you’ve read my earlier review of O’Farrell’s Instructions on a Heat Wave you’ll know it wasn’t for me. Still I’m all for second chances, and having been told by a member of my book group that The Hand That First Held Mine was better – it won the 2010 Costa … More The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
The Tent by Margaret Atwood Sixteen years ago (zooooooooooooooooom: that’s time whizzing by) I started a writer’s journal as a requirement of a Creative Writing MA course I was on at the time. I say requirement because we were instructed to write in our journal every day, but as we didn’t have to hand it … More The Tent by Margaret Atwood
“A happy man has no past, while an unhappy man has nothing else.” Dorrigo Evans, age 77, is a surgeon, a war hero; a celebrity of sorts, made famous by a television documentary about his time as a POW in a Japanese camp on the Burma Death Railway, using his medical skills to save what … More The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
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