Allen& Unwin

Cover image for Becoming Liz Taylor by Elizabeth Delo

Becoming Liz Taylor by Elizabeth Delo: ‘It was probably safe to dress up now’

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That eye-catching jacket, redolent of movie star glamour, might suggest a setting more alluring than Weston-super-Mare for Elizabeth Delo’s debut, Becoming Liz Taylor. No disrespect to any readers from the seaside resort but I have childhood memories of mud rather than the glorious sandy beaches of my hopeful imagination. Delo’s novel begins in Weston where …

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Cover image for Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens

Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens: ‘Rather whore than chore’  

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Over the past decade or so I’ve read several modern takes on westerns, the most enjoyable of which was Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers although Glenn Taylor’s The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggert and A Hanging at Cinder Bottom were also thoroughly entertaining. A couple of years ago the more sober How Much of These Hills …

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The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser: The way we live now

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Last year’s reading got off to a very satisfying start with a book by an Australian author – Jennifer Down’s compassionate, clear-sighted and lovely debut, Our Magic Hour. Coincidentally, this year’s has also begun with a beautifully crafted, thoroughly engaging Australian novel. I’d read and enjoyed Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel a few years …

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Cover image for The Last Painting of Sara de vos by Dominic Smith

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith: Art and fakery

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I’m not sure how I managed to miss Dominic Smith’s novel last year, although the hardback edition’s jacket is somewhat off-putting. In his author’s note Smith tells his readers that the eponymous Sara is loosely based on one of the first women to be admitted to St Luke’s Guild in the 17th-century Netherlands, explaining that …

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