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
Anyone remember Frankie Goes to Hollywood? Their first single, Relax, banned by the BBC, went on to make number one in the UK singles charts – nothing like a bit of controversy to stir up public interest! Their second single also topped the charts, as did their third. But it’s the fourth single, Welcome to … More Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes
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
More than a decade ago my sister bought me The Modern Library: The 200 Best Books Written in English Since 1950 (Carmen Callil and Colm Toibin, Picador, 1999). There are lots of books of the same ilk and any ‘best’ list is bound to be subjective. So it mostly sits untouched on the bookshelf next … More The Secret History by Donna Tartt
It’s 1 January 2017 when I’m writing this (Happy New Year!) although I actually read Theft in summer 2016. Life, in the guise of renovating a house, then moving house, then a significant birthday, then making good the old house, conspired to get in the way of book reviews. I acquired Theft from my hubby, … More Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey
“A man is a god in ruins” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature Kate Atkinson won the Costa Novel Award 2013 for Life After Life about the lives (yes, lives) of Ursula Todd. In 2015 she won it again with A God in Ruins, about the life of Teddy Todd, Ursula’s younger brother. Having read and enjoyed … More A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson
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