The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex Review 'So ghostly in the cold sunlightIt seemed, that we were struck the whileWith wonder all too dread for words.And, as into the tiny creekWe stole beneath the hanging crag,We saw three queer, black, ugly birds—Too big, by far, in my belief,For guillemot or shag—Like seamen sitting bolt-uprightUpon a half-tide …
Category: Book Review
The Heart of the Robot
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro A Review 'Josie came hurrying to me. She put her arms round me and held me. When I gazed over the child's head, I saw Manager smiling happily and the Mother, her face drawn and serious, looking down to search in her shoulder bag.' Klara, the eponymous narrator …
BILLY BOY
Caught Between the Orange and the Green by Joyce Milne D'Auria ‘Maggie’s eye fixed on the boy. She smiled and felt drawn to the cot’s side. The child had red-gold hair down to his collar and piercing blue eyes. He raised his arms to be picked up ....’ Billy Boy is an historical coming-of-age novel …
Cold Comfort Farm
by Stella Gibbons 'You told them you were mad. You had been mad since you saw something nasty in the woodshed.' Aunt Ada Doom is in her eighties. She hasn’t left the farm for twenty years. Indeed, she only comes out of her room once a year to do ‘the Counting’ – a kind of …
STORYLAND
A New Mythology of Britain by Amy Jeffs 'Arthur had a sister called Anna. She married the pagan King Loth of Lothian. Their sons' names were Gawain and Mordred. They had a daughter too, whose name was Teneu. As soon as they were old enough, the boys had migrated south to fight for Arthur. Teneu …
Emma Revisited
'Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.' It has long been the opinion of at least some authorities on the English novel …
ARIADNE
by Jennifer Saint 'What do you imagine the wedding of an Olympian god to be like? The bridal pair descending in a chariot of clouds, pulled by silver horses?' Ariadne - library edition The author's debut novel, Ariadne is a retelling of an old Greek myth or, more correctly, two, maybe three, intertwined myths. First, …
A Song for the Dark Times
by Ian Rankin 'The face was turned away from him, the body twisted and still. Rebus knew a corpse when he saw one - and knew a likely crime scene, too.' Rankin's John Rebus stories are always fun to read, and this one is no exception. Of course, Rebus is now officially retired, but he …
The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett 'A moment later [Edgar] realized he was looking at something even worse than a monster: it was a Viking ship, with a dragon head at the tip of its long curved prow.' It is more than thirty years since Ken Follett published Pillars of the Earth, his first successful full length historical …
In the Name of Religion
The City of Tears by Kate Mosse A Review 'The assassin watched the whore sway, then saw the blossoming of red on green as she fell. He exhaled then relaxed his shoulders. He could not be sure she was mortally wounded but it was a palpable hit. Thanks be to God, his shot had found …
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