Lord Hadrian Marlowe is, by his own admission, his own worst enemy. A patrician son of the cruelly authoritarian ruler of the planet Delos, Sir Alistair Marlowe, who does not share his class’s love of crowd-pleasing bloodsports, oppression of the poor or dismissive attitude of anything below their imagined Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Elefant by Martin Suter
Using a glowing pink miniature elephant as the vehicle through which to address the moral and ethical complexities of genetic research may not at first seem to be the most obvious idea in the storytelling book. But Elefant, a tale of one such quite unnatural, lovable oddity, the people Continue Reading
Christmas in July #5: I took joy in Mutts A Shtinky Little Christmas by Patrick McDonnell
Mutts, a delightfully retro, self-aware comic strip by Patrick McDonnell is not your usual humourous newspaper diversion. First published in 1994, and described by the immortally-great Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts) as “one of the best comic strips of all time”, Mutts has always had a keenly-felt beating heart at the Continue Reading
Book review: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
As a lifelong avid reader, there have been several key moments in my reading journey when things have taken a quantum leap up to a whole other level. One of those times was around 11 or 12 when I was no longer as challenged by children’s novels as I Continue Reading
Book review: Whisper by Lynette Noni
You have to admire any author who plunges into the well-travelled waters of genre literature, particularly when it concerns mutants, often held aloft as humanity’s possible evolutionary future and the subject of many a graphic novel or film series. But Australian author Lynette Noni, who is best known for Continue Reading
Book review: I’ll Have What She’s Having by Erin Carlson
Romantic comedies are one of those cinematic genres that the cool people of the world love to rain hate and scorn down upon. Possessed, you must assume, of love lives so magnificently perfect and satisfying that Cupid himself looks on with rose-ripped envy, they look disdainfully at films which Continue Reading
Book review: The Unlikely Heroics of Sam Holloway by Rhys Thomas
It is tempting to think of a whimsically-inclined title such as The Unlikely Heroics of Sam Holloway as a jaunty, appealingly-idiosyncratic journey through the highs and lows of life with a young Englishman whose unorthodox approach to life and decidedly non-mainstream experiences lead to a glowingly-happy end at which Continue Reading
Book review: Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
Lauren Graham is one of my favourite people in the world. I say this quite confidently though I have never met her nor conversed with her at length on social media – nothing says I know you well than an almighty long Twitter thread these days right? – it’s Continue Reading
Book review: The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
Human beings are an innately communal species. It’s one of the things that define us – our need to not simply be in close proximity to our fellow women and men but to know them, laugh with them, drink and eat with them, and above all, profoundly connect with Continue Reading
Christmas in July #1: Book review of Twelve Nights by Andrew Zurcher
There is something deliciously wonderful about subsuming yourself in any book that takes places at Christmas, even if like Andrew Zurcher’s debut novel, Twelve Nights, it is more situational than thematic. There might be little that is innately festive in Zurcher’s lustrously-novel but that is in fact it’s greatest Continue Reading