by Peter May '[Lockdown] was never published. British editors at the time thought my portrayal of London under siege by the invisible enemy of HSN1 was unrealistic and could never happen - in spite of the fact that all my research showed that, really, it could....... Lockdown was consigned to a folder in my Dropbox, …
Author: Andrew G Lockhart
My name is Andrew Lockhart and I grew up in Coatbridge, Scotland. I studied at Glasgow University. After spending three decades in planning, statistics and international sales and marketing, I am now an author, family historian and owner of Magda Green Books. Apart from writing (and reading great books) and blogging, my other interests are science, music of all sorts, and traveling the world.
Castles
The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe A Review 'They pursued their journey over the wilds, and towards the close of day approached the ruins of an abbey, whose broken arches and lonely towers arose in gloomy grandeur through the obscurity of evening.' In Ann Radcliffe's work, it seems to me, there is …
Rebus 2022
A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin 'John Rebus had been in court plenty of times, but this was his first time in the dock.' So begins A Heart Full of Headstones, my second Rankin read of the month. Unlike Mortal Causes, it is set in the present day during the Covid pandemic, and …
Rebus 1993
Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin 'Big Ger Cafferty was looking good. He was fit and lean and had purpose to his gait. A white t-shirt was tight across his chest, flat across ths stomach, and he wore faded work denims and new-looking tennis shoes. He walked into the Visiting Room like he was the visitor, …
Tolkien in Fairyland
Tales from the Perilous Realm A Review 'And so it was that the dragon, charging down the line, suddenly saw straight in front of him his old enemy with Tailbiter in his hand.' This collection of tales and poems does not have the epic grandeur of LOTR. Nor does it have the literary merit of …
Stories for Everyone
'A local group claimed the books were satanic and promoting witchcraft, and consequently, set about burning a large cache of the books outside the Christ Community Church.' [a 2001 campaign in Mexico against The Lord of the Rings] In two previous articles, I talked about some of the books I enjoyed as a youngster. I …
Black Holes
by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw A Review 'Black holes are perfect for learning about physics because understanding them requires pretty much all of it.' 'What happens at the singularity of a black hole is beyond current understanding.' Sometimes you think you know quite a lot about a subject, only to find, after reading another …
Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr Like All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr's 2014/2015 Pulitzer winner, Cloud Cuckoo Land comes as a big surprise. It is a book within a book, as compelling as it is original, and tells the story in three timelines - well, four really (which I will explain shortly). Beginning and ending …
A Story for Boys (and Girls)
World Book Day 2023 - thoughts after the event: Let me begin with a question: Should we boycott, ban or burn great stories because we don't like the authors' opinions, or the opinions and mores of the society in which they lived? Before delving again into the literary world I introduced in my previous article …
Books Quote By Pamela Paul: “Books are a…”
I know World Book Day was Thursday, but I thought this was appropriate retrospectively!
Bookheathen Scribblings 