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 …
Category: Books
A Story for Boys
Thoughts on 'Treasure Island' by RL Stevenson 'His left leg was cut off close to the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird.' I would have been about eight years old, and developing my reading skills, when I read …
Challenging an Empire
The Tiger and the Cauldron New Edition " Doquz had seen death and violence before but never had it filled her with such horror. Though Jahan had relaxed his hold, she was for a moment unable to move. Then something snapped inside her brain. Instead of fear and disgust, she was filled with terrible rage. …
Science and Humanity
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli 'There are absolute masterpieces which move us imtensely: Mozart's Requiem; Homer's Odyssey; tha Sistine Chapel; King Lear.... Einstein's jewel, the general theory of relativity, is a masterpiece of this order.' Published around the same time as his book Reality is not what it seems, Seven Brief Lessons …
Adventure, Love and Legend (2)
Another little plug today for my paperback novel, The Gammadion. 'The envoy shivered. It was only a month till the solstice and, though no snow had fallen, the sharp mountain wind chilled his bones. It was true he had known colder winters, but the circumstances of this journey were exceptional. Fear played a part in …
Helgoland
by Carlo Rovelli translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell 'In my own attempts to make sense of quanta for myself, I have wandered among the texts of philosophers in search of a conceptual basis with which to understand the strange picture of the world provided by this incredible theory. In doing so, I have …
A Life on Our Planet
by David Attenborough A Review There can be few people around the world who have not heard of David Attenborough. He has been involved in nature broadcasting for around seventy of his ninety-four* years. During this time, he has probably seen more of the planet than anyone else alive today. This book, A Life on …
Tomb of Sand
by Geetanjali Shree translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell ‘What is a border? It’s something that surrounds an existence, it is a person’s perimeter. No matter how large, no matter how small.’ Tomb of Sand, which won this year’s International Booker Prize, is about borders - and about crows. Crows, I hear some readers …
Tolkien and the Future of Epic Fantasy
by Andrew G Lockhart ‘The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.’ [HG Wells] The movie industry occasionally trivialises and mangles great works of literature in order to bring them to the screen. We might cite, for example, various adaptations …
Strange Affair at a Lighthouse
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 …
Bookheathen Scribblings 