A Short Story Collection by Ian Rankin 'To be honest, if you were going to see Christ anywhere in Edinburgh, the Hermitage was perfect.' [from 'Seeing Things'] It's been a while since I read one of Ian Rankin's detective stories - Westwind isn't a detective story! - so I enjoyed dipping into these tales from …
Summer Shorts
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been dabbling in short stories, something I don't often do. The first collection which grabbed my attention was Short Stories from the Strand, published in 1992 by The Folio Society. The Strand Magazine came into being in 1891, a collaboration between the publisher George Newnes, literary editor …
The Thinking Tank
by Jae De Wylde The Thinking Tank is a novel I enjoyed reading a few years ago. I have just finished it for the second time. Set partly in Rutland, England's smallest county, in the present day (well, 2003), it is a story of relationships and family secrets. The principle character, Sarah, suffers from …
The Body in the Bog
Broken Ground by Val McDermid A Review Published in 2018, Broken Ground is a police procedural set in Edinburgh and the Highlands of Scotland. Thus I couldn't resist delving into it. ' "I need you over here. This body that's supposed to have been in the ground for seventy-four years? He's wearing a pair of …
Frustration
I haven't been getting out much lately, apart from the permitted exercise and an occasional visit to the supermarket or pharmacist. We have managed to get most of our shopping needs delivered. One thing I miss most about this lockdown is being able to go browsing in the local bookshop. Bookshops seem to be all …
Tidelands
by Philippa Gregory A Review 'This was the walking night for the dead, this night and their saints' days; but she did not think her drunken violent husband had been under the care of any particular saint.' Alinor Reekie scratches out a living for herself and her children Rob and Alys in the marshlands of …
Carry On Dreaming
Tolkien and the Future of Epic Fantasy 'Then what are You, having no Chaos found To make a World, or any such least Ground? But your Creating Fancy, thought it fit To make your World of Nothing, but pure Wit. Your Blazing-World, beyond the Stars mounts higher, Enlightens all with a Cœlestial Fier. [William, 1st …
The Five
by Hallie Rubenhold The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper 'The victims of Jack the Ripper were never "just prostitues"; they were daughters, wives, mothers, sisters and lovers. They were women. They were human beings, and surely that, in itself, is enough.' During the late summer of 1888, death stalked the …
Tracing the Past
by Andrew G. Lockhart (taken from Tapestry, the Story of a Family) A few miles to the west of Edinburgh, and not far from the Firth of Forth, lies the village of Abercorn. It was a hamlet as early as the seventh century and is mentioned in the annals of the Venerable Bede, the Northumbrian …
The Confession
by Jessie Burton A Review 'I was fourteen when I killed my mother.' Elise Morceau is twenty years old in 1980 when she meets thirty-five-year-old novelist Constance Holden in London. They embark on a love affair. One of Constance's novels is being made into a movie and Constance takes Elise with her to Hollywood to …
