All Our Squandered Beauty
November 12, 2020
“They spread out their jackets and lay down together on the warm bed of pine needles, bright stars shining between the tall spruce trees…” … More All Our Squandered Beauty
Category: Book reviews
Mostly fiction but some poetry too…
Fledge
July 30, 2020
As an ex primary teacher myself, I imagine poetry lessons with Jonathan Humble must be highly entertaining and loved by pupils in the school in Cumbria where he teaches. I haven’t read his verse for children, but a playful sense of humour comes over in many of the poems in this new collection from Maytree … More Fledge
A Song Inside – review
July 9, 2020
You burned fiercely during your too-short life, sometimes with an intensity uncomfortable for you and those around you. But your presence was always felt. None of us wants to lose a child. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. In 2016 Gill Mann’s much loved son, Sam died from schizophrenia at 22. In this beautifully written memoir … More A Song Inside – review
Sky Light Rain – a review
June 25, 2020
Sky Light Rain, Judy Darley’s second collection of short stories and flash fictions, was published at the end of 2019 by Valley Press a small indie based in Scarborough, Yorkshire. My review copy arrived during lockdown and has been a very welcome distraction from the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic. As I’ve said before, short stories … More Sky Light Rain – a review
Scratched Enamel Heart: review
May 22, 2020
In 2018 I reviewed Amanda Huggins’ very enjoyable first collection of short stories, Separated from the Sea, (read here) and here I am again only two years later reviewing her second. And what a great collection it is, even better than the first. Beautifully nuanced writing that will surprise and move you and includes her … More Scratched Enamel Heart: review
Blue Ticket – a review
May 14, 2020
Sophie Mackintosh’s first novel, The Water Cure, announced an assured and confident voice in literary fiction and was deservedly longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018. Her second novel, Blue Ticket, revisits a similar dystopian world where all the usual facets of normal life are turned upside down. Calla, like all girls knows that … More Blue Ticket – a review
Summerwater by Sarah Moss – a review
May 1, 2020
Excellent, atmospheric novel set by a Scottish loch where unrelated families are trying to make the most of a rainy summer holiday. It’s both funny, realistic and also imbued with impending tragedy. The ending is so unexpected it takes your breath away. I enjoyed Sarah Moss’s previous novella, Ghost Wall and although completely different there … More Summerwater by Sarah Moss – a review
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – a review
April 16, 2020
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is a second collection from David Coldwell whose debut , Flowers by the Road, won the Templar Poetry Portfolio Prize in 2016. In this new collection there are some very enjoyable and straightforward poems which will appeal to anyone who loves the wilds of Yorkshire. The main themes are change and time, … More The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – a review
Conjure Women – a review
April 13, 2020
This excellent narrative is centred on Rue, one of the ‘conjure’ women of the title, who works as midwife and herbalist for the other enslaved people on a plantation in 19th century America. When Bean, a pale-skinned child with strangely dark eyes is born, Rue is horrified: ‘She felt then that she knew him for … More Conjure Women – a review
Unprotected: a review
April 3, 2020
Unprotected by Sophie Jonas-Hill is a novel dedicated to ‘all those who have suffered loss and miscarriage, and keep on fighting’. But it’s not a misery-fest. Far from it. Lydia is a tattooist and, when her long-term relationship breaks down after a series of miscarriages, she’s both hurt and supremely angry. After a drunk night … More Unprotected: a review
Ali Thurm 