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Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
How could Elizabeth Gaskell do this to me? Seven hundred pages into Wives and Daughters (published in 1866) and her tale of life in a provincial English town came to an abrupt halt, leaving me with...
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5 reasons to read The Miniaturist
It was hard to miss Jessie Burton’s debut novel The Miniaturist last year. Readers were so entranced by her tale of strange secrets behind the door of a sixteenth century Amsterdam house, they bought...
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In short: Bawden and O’Farrell
I surrender. My brilliant plan to use the Christmas break to catch up on all my outstanding reviews from 2014 came to nothing. And now it’s nearly the end of January and they are still not done. If I...
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Time for a catch up
Earl Grey tea is brewing; the birds are having a jolly time in the pond and I can hear the faint sound of a lawn mower. It’s a glorious Sunday morning here. Perfect timing to catch up on the week just...
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The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins was a pioneer of the sensation novel, the genre often considered a precursor to detective and suspense fiction. I’ve long been a fan of his work, particularly The Woman in White and The...
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My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
I remember vividly the first time I read Middlemarch. It was my second year in university and the reading list for the module on nineteenth century literature was HUGE. They didn’t come much bigger...
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A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
According to the judges of the 2015 Costa Book Awards, Patrick Gale’s novel A Place Called Winter is “A sensitive, beautifully structured story of loss, fear, exile and hope.” It certainly dealt with...
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Last Orders by Graham Swift #Bookerprize
Last Orders is a tale of four men who embark on a day trip to the seaside. Actually there are five people in the car that takes them from London to Margate though one of them is not in a position to...
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Moskva by Jack Grimwood: darkness at the heart of the Soviet Union #thriller
Moscow Christmas Eve 1985. The naked body of a young boy is found at the foot of the Kremlin. There are no clues as to how he met his death. No bullet holes, no stab wounds, no broken limbs, no...
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Books On My Autumn TBR List
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday looks to that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and asks what we’ll be reading this Autumn from our TBR. Making a list of what I’m going to read is always tricky for...
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The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis: A book to divide a nation
It was a surprise to many when Kinglsey Amis won the Booker Prize in 1986 for The Old Devils for this was an author who, according to the wisdom of the masses, was long past his prime. I don’t know...
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Reading Snapshot October 2016
I can pretend no longer. The tinges of red on bushes in my garden and the rate at which our copper beech is shedding leaves tells me that summer is over. Time for the season of mists and intermittent...
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Time Harry Potter came off the banned list?
Last week was Banned Books Week, an annual even run by the American Library Association to highlight challenges to our freedom to read. As always this event comes with a reminder of which books groups...
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Two disappointing crime stories
I’ve always been able to rely on Ruth Rendell in the past when I wanted a good crime yarn on audio; one that wasn’t too complicated that I lost attention on my driving and was rather topical. But its...
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The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G Farrell #ManBooker
J.G Farrell is a writer whose work I was completely oblivious to until I started on my project to read all the past winners of the Booker Prize. The Siege of Krishnapur is part of a series of novels...
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Clearing the review backlog: Three short reviews
Jason at We Need to Talk About Books hit on a great idea with his “books read but not reviewed” posts. Such a great idea that I’ve borrowed it to deal with a backlog of reviews that I never seem to be...
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A View of The Harbour, Elizabeth Taylor #1947club
What a lot of unhappy people inhabit the fishing village chosen as the setting of Elizabeth Taylor’s A View from the Harbour. Loneliness and disappointment seep out from almost every house that sits on...
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Treasure Island: a troubling adventure
Half a century has passed since I first read Treasure Island by R. L Stevenson yet much of it is still fresh in my mind. I remember the menacing figure of Long John Silver and the quick witted child...
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Review backlog – part 2
Continuing the idea from a recent post, here are some short reviews of novels I read a few years ago but failed to finish the reviews. Luckily I had started them and had kept a few notes to help but...
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Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers
Strong Poison is the fifth book to feature Dorothy L Sayers’ aristocratic private sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read any of the earlier novels for this book can stand on...
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