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Tag: Whitbread Novel Award

The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch

28/01/2022

Hubby recently confessed to an affair with a younger woman, who became pregnant. That was nine years ago and the child, a boy called Luca, is now eight. Hubby still visits the woman, Emily, and rents a flat for her, though he swears he doesn’t love her and maintains contact only because of Luca. I … More The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch

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Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge

22/10/2021

Back when I was learning the rules of football watching Match of the Day with my Dad, referee’s assistants were called linesmen, time added on at the end of the game was called injury time and there wasn’t a female in sight. Not on the pitch, nor pitch-side, nor in the studio. Football was something … More Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge

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The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor

28/05/2021

I bet you’ll have come across one at some stage when you were growing up: the kid in the class who had no friends and was always alone. The kid who other kids avoided because they just weren’t right, somehow. The kid who even adults didn’t like, never asking why we didn’t invite them to … More The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor

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Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

23/10/2020

A few summers ago, Hubby and I took in the capitals of Scandinavia and the Baltic: Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn with their medieval old towns; scenic Helsinki; compact, cultured Oslo; and wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. I’d had it in my head to go to Copenhagen ever since I was a kid growing up in the 1970’s … More Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

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The Bird of Night by Susan Hill

21/08/2020

When I was a teenager studying for my ‘A’-levels, one of the English Literature set-texts was Waiting for Godot, and I struggled to understand it; particularly the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky. In case you’re not familiar with Beckett’s play, when they first appear Lucky has a rope around his neck, which Pozzo uses to … More The Bird of Night by Susan Hill

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Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

20/03/2020

Hubby and I spent a week in France last summer to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. 30 years! Where did they go? When you’ve no kids, you live in a Peter Pan-like bubble where you never seem to get any older and time doesn’t seem to pass until…bam! A significant anniversary hits and it’s hard … More Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

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The Accidental by Ali Smith

21/02/2020

My Uncle Bobbie died just over a year ago. I’ve spent some time recently sorting through his old 78” records. He had a lovely singing voice in his day and for many years was a compere and singer at his local parish club.  Unsurprisingly his old records reflect the music he most liked to sing: … More The Accidental by Ali Smith

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Docherty by William McIlvanney

20/07/2018

My dad was a short man with a short fuse.  Mostly affable, he could explode into violent rage at the smallest of provocations. As a child I witnessed him throw stuff in the air, hurl stuff to the floor, bang his fist on tables, and lash out at whichever unlucky sentient got in the way: … More Docherty by William McIlvanney

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Reviews

  • Learning to Talk: short stories by Hilary Mantel
  • English Journey by J B Priestley
  • At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
  • Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
  • The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch
  • Miscellanea
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
  • Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
  • Twopence to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forrester
  • The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (translated by Michelle Hutchinson)
  • The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
  • Elegies by Douglas Dunn
  • The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor
  • The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
  • The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
  • The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
  • Love Is Blind by William Boyd
  • Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (translated by Marilyn Booth)
  • Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
  • The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles
  • The Bird of Night by Susan Hill
  • Footnotes – A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers by Peter Fiennes
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
  • Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
  • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
  • Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge
  • The Accidental by Ali Smith
  • The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor
  • 10 Best Novels of the Decade: 2010 to 2019
  • Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
  • Emily Dickinson – poems selected by Ted Hughes
  • The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es
  • Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley
  • Milkman by Anna Burns
  • Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill
  • The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
  • A Life of Picasso Volume 1: 1881 – 1906 by John Richardson
  • Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Jennifer Croft)
  • Swing Hammer Swing! by Jeff Torrington
  • Theory of War by Joan Brady
  • Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
  • A Good Man In Africa by William Boyd
  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
  • The Vegetarian by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
  • Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
  • Docherty by William McIlvanney
  • Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore

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