Lorna Doone By R.D. Blackmore RD Blackmore was a prolific and popular writer of novels and poetry during the mid-nineteenth century. Lorna Doone is the only one of his works to survive the test of time. Lorna Doone is a love story. Yet in choosing its subtitle, A Romance of Exmoor, the author had something …
Category: Books
Farewell to Barcelona
The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon translation by Lucia Graves 'Isaac sighed. “Alicia,” he said at last. “Welcome to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.” ' I [and I suspect many other readers too] have waited a long time for this book. Conceived sometime around 1998, the project Mr Zafon is pleased to …
Alice!
A look back at the life of a famous child - I haven't done any blogging for a week or two because I've been on holiday, first in the New Forest, then in Belgium and the Netherlands. Wherever I go, I can't help looking for literary connections. A few years ago, at Winchester, it was …
Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman 'The highest and the oldest of all the gods is Odin.' 'Thor, Odin's son, is the thunderer.' 'Loki drinks too much, and he cannot guard his words or his thoughts or his deeds when he drinks.' I came late to Neil Gaiman's fiction and have not read many of his books - …
Anaesthesia
The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry Occasionally, a walk through a bookshop will throw up unexpected delights. Browsing the new and bestseller shelves in my local shop recently, I was surprised to see a book entitled The Way of All Flesh. I immediately thought of Samuel Butler, and wondered why on earth his …
Goodbye to Barcelona
Next Tuesday, September 18, sees the publication (at last) of the Lucia Graves English translation of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's El Laberinto de los Espiritus. The novel, The Labyrinth of Spirits in English, is the final part of the author's cycle of stories set in Barcelona, sometimes referred to as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. …
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown A Review 'The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.' [attributed to General Philip Sheridan 1868] I began this book with high expectations and a lot of questions. Most of my expectations were realised, yet some of the …
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman A Review Neverwhere is the third Gaiman novel I have read and the most outrageous. How to describe it? A fusion of the everyday with the world of nightmares, it features a large cast of impossible characters in matter-of-fantasy surroundings. The place is London. The landmarks are still there - the tube …
Robots and Empire
by Isaac Asimov A Review Gladia's life until now has not been without excitement: two husbands, two lovers, two children and two murders, solved against the odds by Earthman Elijah Baley. However, all these things have happened during her first three or four decades and then, for the last two centuries - nothing. Her life …
Nymphs and Naiads
Circe by Madeline Miller A Review Madeline Miller earned the Orange Prize in 2012 for her highly original novel The Song of Achilles. Now, six years later, she is back among the gods, goddesses and sundry immortals with another feast of ambrosia and a look at one of the lesser villains of Greek mythology. I …
Magda Green Books 