Book news, reviews and recommendations
For me, Alice McDermott belongs to a small, select band of authors who write slim, elegant novels, each word carefully chosen and none wasted. It includes Colm Tóibín, John McGahern and Anne Enright. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that they’re all Irish or of Irish extraction although Helen Dunmore is no slouch at this kind of […]
Someone by Alice McDermott: A quiet masterpiece Read More »
Being of a certain age, I have several over-80s in my life and have lost several more dear to me in recent years. Some have aged well – I have a lovely memory of my 90-year-old aunt executing high kicks in her kitchen a few months before she died, delighted when H couldn’t match her
Ammonites and Leaping Fish by Penelope Lively: Ageing with grace and eloquence Read More »
In the early ’80s Nina Stibbe took up a job as a nanny in north London, 55 Gloucester Crescent to be precise. With no Facebook, no Twitter, no email, no texting only landlines and Royal Mail for keeping in touch, Nina wrote regularly to her sister Vic about her new life and Vic kept the
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe: Despatches from family life Read More »
Three German soldiers – Bauer, Emmerich and an unnamed narrator – stride out into the frigid Polish winter, their minds on keeping warm and their empty stomachs. They’ve missed breakfast, determined to avoid the daily round of executions by volunteering to hunt down Jews and bring them back to the camp. Emmerich frets about his
I’m a huge Ann Patchett fan and when I spotted her memoir in Bloomsbury’s catalogue it seemed the next best thing to a new novel. When it arrived I was a little disappointed as it turns out to be a collection of essays rather than continuous prose but after gobbling them all down I’ve come
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett: Which is very much more than that Read More »
It’s been some time since I’ve read a Peter Ackroyd novel – Hawksmoor was wonderful and I enjoyed Chatterton but somehow I couldn’t get on with his later fiction – however something about Three Brothers appealed so I thought I’d try again. Opening in the 1950s it tells the story of the Hanways who live
Three Brothers by Peter Ackroyd: Only connect Read More »
Probably because it was published just before Halloween and because I’d had the living daylights scared out of me three times by The Woman In Black – once by the book, secondly by a TV adaptation many years ago and then again at the theatre by which time you’d think I knew what to expect
Black Sheep by Susan Hill: A moral tale Read More »
I got together with R and S, two ex-Waterstone’s friends, in Birmingham yesterday, partly for a good old chat but our main destination was Birmingham’s spanking new library which I’d been wanting to visit since it opened back in September. We had a gorgeous day for it – bright sunshine bouncing off the tiered, shiny
The Library of Birmingham: A box of delights Read More »
I’ve done my best to avoid all the reviews and brouhaha around The Goldfinch justifiable though it is – it’s been a decade since The Little Friend and two since The Secret History had us all entranced – but I wanted to come to it fresh. As a result I missed the Kirsty Wark interview,
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: ‘Density and speed’ – it’s all you want in a novel’ Read More »
When I was a bookseller the phrase ‘gift edition’ was enough to bring me out in a rash. It usually meant a non-book, dressed up in frills and spangles, meant to catch the eye at the till point in the way that sweeties do in the supermarket. They also served as desperation presents on Christmas
All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman: A quirky little classic Read More »
Back in the summer we were invited to an afternoon Pimms party by a couple of our neighbours. Lovely idea for what was turning out to be sunny summer but sadly when the day came it was the wettest Saturday afternoon in August. Being British, though, we didn’t let a bit of rain get in
Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman and a wet afternoon Pimms party Read More »