Revisiting the favourite literature of our childhood and youth can often bring disappointment. There may be several reasons why this is so. For one thing, reading tastes change as we grow older. The world changes too; ideas about what is acceptable, amusing, moral, and so on, do not remain fixed. That is not to say …
Category: Books
It isn’t all tinsel and lights
Cold Christmas A short story collection by Reggie Walton I suspect that most of us view Christmas as a happy season, with lots of food, drink, fir trees, decorations and good company. Even when we are not moved by its religious significance, Christmas is a time for reflecting on the past year, and for looking …
A Good Hanging
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 …
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 …
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 …
Just Published …. [2]
Dark Inheritance A Mediaeval Fantasy Today, I am posting another extract from my novel. "She prods the bundle with her finger. To her astonishment it moves. With beating heart, Tessera pulls aside some folds of cloth and finds herself looking into the face of an infant of no more than a few months old. Its …
Am I a Racist?
Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge A Review Once in a while, there is a book that really makes us think - not just about the words, the story, the literary value or even, superficially, about the message. Instead, it makes us search deep down in our own …
Undiscovered Territory
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle A Review 'Challenger smiled with weary and tolerant contempt, as a kindly man would meet the yapping of a litter of puppies.' 'Beyond was an open glade, and in this were five of the most extraordinary creatures that I had ever seen .... Even the babies were as …
