I’ve had this book on my shelves for so long I’d forgotten it resided there. Curiosity made me pick up this ‘classic’ to discover what I could. There is much to learn here, if you have an interest in European history. However, it becomes clear that Plutarch was not a particularly reliable historian. His interest …
I decided last year to spend time away from creating fiction. Why? Like all human faculties, although the creative function benefits from use, it also sometimes needs rest to be refreshed.So, what did I do? I wrote a few posts for a platform called Medium. You can find those here, if you’re curious. I also …
A thriller written by a master of the language. Not for the faint-hearted or those lacking in education, this story relates the series of events that lead up to the stalking of the main character by a seriously disturbed and potentially violent would-be lover. The stalker is obsessive and deluded and follows the pattern of …
Subtitled ‘1001 Things Everyone Should Know About RELIGION’, this is a piece of work, as the subtitle says, everyone should read.That it is a scholarly work is indicated by the comprehensive bibliography, index and accompanying notes, which take up around 28% of the publication. The author lightens a heavy subject by being occasionally a little …
Continue reading Mostly Harmful, by Michael Paulkovich: #BookReview.
This anthology from the respected Bridport Prize annual competitions presents the winners of the Poetry, Short Story, and Flash Fiction sections. Of the 35 pieces published here, I’m disappointed to report only one, Kerry Lyons’ ‘Seventeen Weeks’, really moved me. Many of the others struck me as pretentious, overly academic, self-absorbed, or simply incomprehensible. A …
Continue reading Bridport Prize 2022 Anthology: #BookReview.
312 pagesUrban/Thrillers A book underpinned by scholarship, this crime thriller-cum-psychological thriller-cum-literary novel works on many levels. But how to review it without even hinting at spoilers?I think it’s safe enough to let potential readers know the ‘author’ of a crime novel is about to commit himself to the method and occasion of the murder at …
Continue reading Perilaus II, by Mark P. Henderson: #BookReview.
The Bard, William Shakespeare, would have been 458 years old sometime around today; a veritable Methuselah! Of course, our national playwright died on 23rd April 1616. According to tradition, he was born on 23 April 1564, but that’s speculation. We do know, however, he was baptised on 26th of that month. I wonder what he’d …
Fiction Classics/Literary Fiction288 PagesJane Austen’s first published novel ‘Sense and Sensibility’ manages to capture all her humour and dissatisfaction with the age in which she lived. I felt the language was a little more convoluted and, occasionally, more obtuse than in the better known ‘Pride and Prejudice’, making it sometimes hard work to ascertain her …
Continue reading Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen: #BookReview.
Subtitled, Extracts from the Diary, this is a selection of Pepys’s diary entries over the years from 1660 to 1669, when his eyesight deteriorated to such an extent that he could no longer spend the time needed to write in secret by candlelight. There is a useful introduction by the editor, explaining the way he …
Continue reading The Illustrated Pepys, Edited by Robert Latham: #BookReview.
I suppose we should first decide what constitutes a short story. Roughly, because these things tend to be a matter of opinion rather than fact, a short story is a work of fiction with a word count somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000. So, do you read them? It’s clear lots of readers do. I belong …
252 pagesContemporary/Literary Fiction The blurb asks, ‘Fiction or autobiography?’ and sort of replies, ‘both, neither?’. The whole point of this extraordinary created work is to ask, and attempt to answer, some basic questions relating to literature, storytelling, identity, and life itself. It’s an ambitious aim and one I suspect many readers will find difficult, demanding, …
Stage Play script. This exploration of family unity, loyalty and dishonesty is structured through three acts to use time as a clever ingredient of viewing, and attempting to predict, the future. It depicts a typical upper middle-class family of the era, showing the inherent snobbery, their patchy understanding of the world they occupy, and how …
Continue reading Time and the Conways, by J.B. Priestley: #BookReview.
First published in 1907, the text of the stage play I read is introduced by a preface from the author. Here, he talks about the language he has used, how and where he encountered it, and why he has employed such colloquial idioms in the work. I can best serve the author’s intent by quoting …
Continue reading The Playboy of the Western World, by J. M. Synge: #BookReview.
Poetry is such a varied medium that a reader approaches any work with cautious curiosity. What will this piece say, will it be formal, contemporary, or simply chopped prose? The very fact that Calibna prefers his Junk Talk Poet handle may well put off a number of potential readers due to the propensity to pre-judge. …
Continue reading Grenade Rain Dance, by Calibna J. Kerr (Junk Talk Poet): #BookReview.
I read this short story by the famous playwright in the hope it would prove a better read than his ‘The Birthday of the Infanta’. My hope was based on ‘The Sphinx Without a Secret’ and ‘The Selfish Giant’, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately, this moral tale is similar to the ‘Infanta’, in …
Continue reading The Fisherman and His Soul, by Oscar Wilde: #BookReview.
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