Category Archives: Book Reviews

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Lincoln in the Bardo

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This year’s winner of the Man Booker Prize is a startling and engrossing read.  It’s astonishing that it’s George Saunders first novel. I haven’t read his short stories, though he was on my radar as a hugely skilled writer and … Continue reading

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Two Novels Historical

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Historical fiction being de rigeur right now – a review of two plaudit-laden historical novels, The Essex Serpent and The Girl in the Glass Tower, both published recently and both by women writers. First, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent (Serpents … Continue reading

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London Books

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The first chapter of Peter Ackroyd’s London Under is entitled Darkness Visible and it begins ‘Tread carefully over the pavements of London for you are treading on skin, a skein of stone that covers rivers and labyrinths, tunnels and chambers, streams … Continue reading

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Weatherland

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I promised that I would not blog about the weather – climate change or spectacular climactic events, yes, ordinary weather, no ( see Storm Warning ). I am, however, thoroughly enjoying reading about the weather, or rather the impact it has … Continue reading

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A Child’s Eye

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The child protagonist is an enduring feature of fiction, for adult as well as child readers, especially when a novel is written in the first person. There are classic adventure stories – ‘Treasure Island‘, ‘Kim‘ or ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’; coming … Continue reading