Welcome to my new Books blog
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Book Review: The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene: Actress, Writer, Rebel Victorian
As a society, we tend to think we understand the Victorians. In fact, in many circles these their ultra-stuffy ways of life are frequent points of humour. But what was the reality for individual Victorian people? And how much has changed?
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Book Review: Castle Shade by Laurie R. King
How do you breathe new life into a character almost as old as the hills? A character in which literary culture is so steeped that it forms part of its very fabric.
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BOOK REVIEW: Daisy Lafarge’s Life Without Air
Daisy Lafarge’s by now revered debut collection, Life Without Air, does the exact same thing with our prime lifeforce. But she goes much further than just to explore the relationship between humanity and naturism.
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Book Review: The Forward Book Of Poetry 2021
But what the Forward Book of Poetry always does best is show the extent to which resonant, powerful poetry is in rude health. The best way to view it is as exactly what it is; a primer for serious, essential talent in contemporary writing.
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Book Review: David Stafford’s Skelton’s Guide To Suitcase Murders
It’s no surprise, then, that the trademarks of his addictive style – genuine laugh-out-loud humour and a wry approach to societal ills – run rampant in Skelton’s Guide To Suitcase Murders.
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Book Review: Nicole Flattery’s Show Them A Good Time
And its real magic lies in the way in manages to unscrupulously and breathlessly smash expectations; both those of the protagonists and the reader. Flattery’s writing is often tricksy, and yet she holds the rudder straight via instantly realistic truths, fears and injustices.
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Book Review: Emily Brand’s The Fall of The House of Byron
After 3 years and a frankly astonishing amount of research – and this book really is fabulously thorough – the tome lands on our laps. But is it as scandalous and deliciously riveting as its title suggests? For me, the answer is sometimes.
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Book Review: Sarah Hawkswood’s Blood Runs Thicker
Blood Runs Thicker knows it audience, knows it art form and appeases both magnificently.
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Book Review: The Middle Of A Sentence
A new short prose anthology from Scottish indie publisher The Common Breath, The Middle Of A Sentence tackles the staring chasms ever-present in modern western society in beautiful, evergreen and shape-shifting ways.
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BOOK REVIEW: Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry
That aforementioned elephant is that the sex/gender politics in A Star Called Henry are staggeringly misguided, even by the standards of 1999.
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BOOK REVIEW: Simon Schama’s A History Of Britain Volume II
In his second volume of the history of Britain, Simon Schama proves himself way ahead of the early-noughties curve and presents a thorough dissection of modern(ish) British politics.
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BOOK REVIEW: GARY DONELLY’S NEVER ASK THE DEAD
Colleagues in the police’s Serious Historic Offences Unit – or SHOT – Sheen and McCusker get thrown into Britain’s murky involvement in The Troubles when a walk-in turns up looking for his missing father.
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BOOK REVIEW: Simon Schama’s A History of Britain Vol. 1: At The Edge Of The World?
On the one hand, it’s an immensely readable, poetic and entertaining thing. Schama doesn’t cover any massive new ground, nor does he pretend to. His remit and refreshing eye is contained in his lyrical writing, bringing the full peacock-ish sense of Elizabethan splendour, or the gruelling Machiavellian antics of Anglo-Saxon Britain, to zesty life.
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BOOK REVIEW: Raven Leilani’s Luster
A 23-year-old assistant at a New York publishing house, Edie finds herself dating a man twice her age, eventually becoming entangled in an open marriage. On a surface level, it’s the story of being the ‘other woman’, albeit in 21st century suburbia and not wild and despotic Thomas Hardy English countryside.
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BOOK REVIEW: Bhanu Kapil’s How To Wash A Heart
The idea that T. S. Eliot’s work itself is the high watermark of poetic substance is problematic at best. But in this case, Bhanu Kapil’s latest collection really *IS* that good.
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BOOK REVIEW: Jackie Wills’ A Friable Earth
Ageing womanhood is still a taboo in Western society. Frequently misrepresented and oftentimes ignored, the perspectives of women over 60 should be another bolt in the educational foundations of life.
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BOOK REVIEW: J. O. Morgan’s The Martian’s Regress
Scottish poet J. O. Morgan’s The Martian’s Regress makes some powerful points about ecological collapse, but has a questionable approach to gender politics.
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BOOK REVIEW: Porsha Olayiwola’s I Shimmer Sometimes, Too
A powerful, gut-punching assertion of identity as a black, queer, ‘hip-hop feminist’, the 73 pages here are some of the most fiery, lucid and ambitious poems that you’re likely to read for some time.
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BOOK REVIEW: Miranda Kaufmann’s Black Tudors: The Untold Story
We all know that 2020 was a seismic year for race relations. The murder of George Floyd by a policeman in the US sent decades-old discussions into fever pitch.
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BOOK REVIEW: Peter Robinson’s Poetry & Money: A Speculation
Poets will tell you that their art is a valuable key to unlocking life’s secrets. They’ll argue that poetry is as essential as anything else when discussing cultural and personal worth. I believe that’s true; but the elephant in the room is what gives our lives material, physical and tangible value.
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The Best Books I Read In 2020
What a year 2020 has been for the publishing industry. It’s not unique in the hurdles it’s had to face of course. The Coronavirus has put a stopper in plans for growth and expansion in pretty much every sector across the globe, and has made keeping heads above water an arduous task. It doesn’t totally… Read more
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FeaturedWorld Book History #9: Maps Of Desire
Manuel Forcano, one of Catalan’s leading love poets, primarily focuses on romantic love. That’s true of his 2019 collection Maps of Desire (Arc Publications) too. But he also explores how romanticism can be extended to societal love and community cohesion.
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FeaturedWorld Book History #6: Terrorism in Western Literature
How do you write about a lived experience which is not your own? More importantly, *should* you?
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