From age two up to my early teens we lived round the corner from Mr and Mrs J and their three lads, a family who were notorious in the area. Mrs J did not dress like the other mums, whose style choices tended towards vaguely shapeless dresses, comfy shoes and headscarves – this was the … More Milkman by Anna Burns
When I was a child, and resisting sleep because I was scared of ghosts – I grew up in a formerly haunted house, but that’s a whole other story – my mother would tell me, as her mother had told her, that good people are in Heaven with God and don’t want to leave, and … More Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
“How long shall they kill our prophets While we stand around and look? Some say it’s just a part of it. We’ve got to fulfil the book.” Redemption Song, 1980 On 3 December 1976, two days before he was to appear at a free concert organised by the Jamaican Prime Minister, Bob Marley was shot … More A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010) hailed from the same city as me, Liverpool. I didn’t know that until I read John Banville’s introduction to my edition of Master Georgie. And nor did my hubby, also from Liverpool. So it’s fair to say that Bainbridge isn’t feted as much in her home city as other Scouse writers such … More Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
‘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
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
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