Of course there are readers who gravitate towards fiction set in ancient times, with their battered Mary Renault and Robert Graves paperbacks, their beloved Rosemary Sutcliffe childhood favourites still lining their shelves. Harper Collins, 2012 But just as there were many readers who would never pick up a western but
If it had only been made into a film, I'm convinced that Elizabeth Taylor's Palladian would enjoy the same public flourishes of devotion that Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm can claim. Both novels are so bookishly satirical that we bookish folks have to squint to see the satire. But where
"Crackling with energy, assured and authoritative." So says Val McDermid about Manda Scott's debut suspense novel, Hen's Teeth, the first novel to feature Dr Kellen Stewart. But she might well have been discussing Kellen herself. Indeed, she is the draw to the series, in this reader's opinion; it's Kellen's sharp
B.I.P.'s Snips are short-hand responses to works; I usually opt for this format when I've read the book without taking many (or any) notes. Kate Wilhelm’s Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) Read: Mostly over breakfast, home-baked muffins or bakery-bought rugelach with coffee, perched on a stool in the kitchen, mostly
The weeks for Carl's un-Challenge are slipping past. We're almost a third of the way into the event now, and of course it's mostly about the books, but there are quests for Short Stories and for the Screen as well. Screen: Okay, I admit it. Whenever a book appears in
