When God was a Rabbit (2011) – Review & Discussion
Share I found this to be a beautiful and absorbing book, and I cannot recommend it enough. While the blurb on the back cover does it justice, it is so much more than “a book about a brother and a sister…a book about secrets and starting over, friendship and family, triumph and tragedy, and everything...
Grazed knees
Share A recurring dream is a particular dream that is experienced by a person multiple times over the course of their life. This dream is always the same. The same setting, the same characters, and it is derived from the same emotion. Some of the common ones include: being chased, finding yourself in a public place dressed...
When you think that you’re about to die
Share When you are faced with death, people say that your life flashes right before your eyes. But, that’s not true. You are consumed by nothingness. Everything and nothing happens at the same time. Your body is aware of what’s happening around you, while your brain shuts down. Your vision is gone and all you...
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman – Review
Share For those who read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Stephen Kelman’s writing style will be familiar to you. Written from the point of view of 11 year old Harrison Opoku (known to his friends as Harri), Kelman’s debut novel is honest, fresh and at times, amusing. It is fair to...
Books: “Going the way of the Horo”
Share Last week, hands laden with either luggage or laziness, I don’t remember which, I asked a friend of mine for the time. An accommodating wrist stretched out, its cotton sleeve retracted and a plain black Swatch peered upwards for a moment before that same wrist plunged out of sight into a deep trouser pocket...
The Pen vs The Sword
Share A conceit in which I contend they are the same In an electronic world is one permitted to muse upon the future of expressions such as ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’? Today, can we say, ‘the (computer) key is mightier than the sword? Or, more appropriately, the ‘chip is mightier than the...
The Word House, Gallery Café, 14th January 2012
Share Everyone, by now, knows what to expect from The Word House. Everyone indeed. Half of East London were unfortunately turned away at the door on Saturday as the Gallery Café reached bursting point. ‘Sardines’, someone said; it was like rush hour on the Northern Line. One guy stood there awkwardly negotiating a curry as...
The Family (2001) by Mario Puzo – a book review
Share Finished by his partner Carol Gino, due to the Puzo’s death, The Family is a historical thriller set in Rome during the 15th Century, and is about the dramatic lives of the Borgia family, and their struggle for, and with, power. Rodrigo Borgia is a cardinal in the Vatican, with hopes of securing a...
The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver (2006) – a book review
Share Expertly written crime thriller, about a serial killer loose in New York City, with an obsession with time and a passion for elaborate murders. Two seemingly unrelated deaths quickly become the hottest new chase for a killer, after an old fashioned, ticking clock was found at each of the crime scenes. The face of...
One Day: Book vs Film
Share Novel and screenplay written by David Nicholls. The book should come with a warning: “Do Not Read In Public.” The film is fine to watch in company– you’re sat in a big dark room, surrounded by people having the same emotional reactions as you. (Which were even more intense when I was reading, instead...
A Shared Experience that will leave you Speechless: Review
Share Words are barely adequate to describe the sensitivity and intensity of Shared Experience’s 2010 First Fringe winner, Speechless. It is the story of identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons whose father is an air traffic controller at an RAF base in Wales. It is 1981 and June and Jennifer, as black children in a...
My Summer of Love by Margery Higglebottom
Share His name was Arvel Edwin Tranter but, for reasons that were never clear, we called him Berny. In the summer of 1957 his garden parties were the place to be for anyone wishing to stand at the top of Britain’s dizzying social ladder. I was invited, I would like to think, in response to...
The Leopard by Jo Nesbo – a book review
Share Crime thriller from respected Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, about a serial killer who uses a particularly horrendous contraption to murder his victims. Starring Nesbo’s recurring protagonist, detective Harry Hole, The Leopard story takes place in several locations: Norway, the Conga, and Hong Kong. After Hole is retrieved from his hiding spot in the latter...
Arthur Machen, and enjoying ‘mystical’ fiction as an atheist
Share Arthur Machen (3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) seems to be one of those writers who is continually referred to as obscure and ‘forgotten’ though many of his works are very much still in print, occasionally gets mentioned in mainstream papers like The Guardian, and is championed by lovers of weird and fantastic...
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