A major disappointment as the metaphors run out of road. Spoiler Alert! Unhelpful plot revelations ahead! A new book by Philip Pullman is usually something of a treat. A literary event in fact. Thi…

A major disappointment as the metaphors run out of road. Spoiler Alert! Unhelpful plot revelations ahead! A new book by Philip Pullman is usually something of a treat. A literary event in fact. This one has particular significance - it’s the concluding volume of the Book of Dust trilogy, and as he gets older (he's 78 now) there is always the fear that it is the last he will ever write.

Slim pickings at this year’s London Film Festival. We struggled with the appalling BFI website, spending many hours lost in its labyrinthine highways and byways, before finally managing to acquire tickets for just two films: Hamnet, directed by Chloe Zhao, and Springsteen: Deliver me from nowhere, directed by Scott Cooper. Hamnet was a juicy treat - a wonderful book that deserved and got, a wonderful film, but it’s not released until January, so you’ll have to wait until then for the review.

“A slice of fantasy brilliance” Always great to get reviews out of the blue from someone who so clearly gets it. This one from AndrewSarahBookReviewer. Yes, that’s their mysteriou…

"A slice of fantasy brilliance" Always great to get reviews out of the blue from someone who so clearly gets it. This one from AndrewSarahBookReviewer. Yes, that's their mysterious handle. Have a read and see if you agree by reading it yourself. Links to Amazon at the end of this blogpost. "A Cold Wind Blows doesn’t read like something written by a man testing his first dip into children’s fantasy.

The approach of Bonfire Night always feels to me like the transition from autumn to winter. The dark, cold, wet nights after the clocks have gone back herald a time to be endured rather than enjoye…

Sarah Vine's account of the misery of being Mrs Michael Gove Another Tory account of the worst successive governments in modern history, with barely a sorry in it. Another magnificent acquisition from Beckenham library, just to reassure you, dear loyal readers, that I’m not contributing a penny to Sarah Vine’s hardship fund. More of that later.Think of this as selfless public service on my part.

It's always lovely when positive reviews keep coming in for a new book. This one is from Rebecca De Figueiredo from the Online Book Club. There are also some great reviews on Amazon too. You can buy the book and see the reviews here: Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Cold Wind Blows" by R J Barron.]

A very well written,enjoyable and entertaining read

I’ve always believed the hierarchy of fictional respectability is just another manifestation of keeping the oiks in their place. Like the concept of a fine palate when it comes to food, having good literary taste is a device to be able to confidently feel and express your own superiority over the lumpen masses. At the top of this pyramid of worth, sits Literary Fiction, smoking a fat cigar, and flicking the ash at the lower classes s/he straddles: reading group fiction, detective novels, romance, horror, sci fi, through an ever-multiplying collection of genres and subgenres, ending in the sludge of graphic novels and comics.

"In an era where young adults face increasingly complex social and political realities, Barron has written a book that offers both an absorbing escape and a compelling message." The first reviews are beginning to come in. This one is from Maria Ashford of Bookshelfie The middle volume of a fantasy trilogy faces a particular challenge: it must advance the story without feeling like mere connective tissue between a promising beginning and a climactic end.

What a lovely novel this is, from someone writing at the top of their game. Structurally and stylistically, it’s a treat, with alternating sections telling the stories of the same character, Edith, fifty years apart. The younger Edith tells her own story, in the first person, through the device of a lengthy letter to a child, to be read in the future, explaining the circumstances of the child’s birth and subsequent life.

Book 2 in the Yngerlande Variations trilogy published by Burton Mayers books The long awaited sequel to “The Watcher and The Friend” by R J Barron is published this Friday by Burton Mayers Books. “…

Book 2 in the Yngerlande Variations trilogy published by Burton Mayers books The long awaited sequel to “The Watcher and The Friend” by R J Barron is published this Friday by Burton Mayers Books. “A Cold Wind Blows” is the second book in the trilogy, The Yngerlande Variations, set in the parallel world of Yngerlande in 1796. Here is the synopsis of the story so far.

This novel should be number one on your summer reading list this year Isla, the new novel from award winning writer, Jim Pollard, is a real treat. It tells the story of Isla Shaw, a student in London in 1983, taking us through the formative events of her life up until 2018. She shuttles between London and Paris between those years, in pursuit of jobs, relationships and some sense of meaning and contentment.

An ARC review for NetGalley A new SJ Parris novel is always an event to celebrate, particularly for someone like me,  with an incurable weakness for historical crime. I’ve read and loved all o…

A review of Simon Hart’s Political diaries Just to give you a flavour of Simon Hart’s powers of political analysis, here’s a memorable sentence from the book:  Their styles are so differ…

A review of Simon Hart's Political diaries Just to give you a flavour of Simon Hart’s powers of political analysis, here’s a memorable sentence from the book: Their styles are so different, that I’ve decided that when it comes to politics (thank goodness for this clarification!) Boris “fucks” and Rishi “makes love”. Both are strangely effective. Both presumably guarantee an earth-moving orgasm every time.