Humanity is, in many ways, an army of conformist clones. Look the right way, talk the right way, act the right the way and acceptance as a fully-fledged member of the human race will be conferred upon you, no questions asked. But dare to look even a skerrick different Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Sirius by Jonathan Crown
Writing a tragi-comic novel centred on a dog of Lassie-like abilities, that is onw who is deeply loveable, prodigious and fantastical, may seem like a highly perilous undertaking. After all, how do you make one of the darkest periods in human history when fascist tyranny became horrifically commonplace and Continue Reading
Turn over another page. My favourite books of 2016
I have loved reading books since before I can remember. Whenever it started, and I suspect it was on the many nights when my mum or dad would read to me when I was toddler, I fell in love with the written word, loving the way words sounded, the Continue Reading
Book review: The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick
For a novel that quietly and poetically reflects on the nature of human existence, and the way in which we are either adventurous wanderers or quietly domiciled, The Comet Seekers pulses with a relentless energy, a ceaseless push-and-pull quest for belonging and relevance. That energy largely comes from the Continue Reading
Santa is coming! No one wants more for Christmas than Pig the Elf
Santa is rightly regarded as a jolly old man with his fingers on the naughty or nice pulse. So on top of the goodness or otherwise of kids around the world we’re told – even it seems their sleep habits and propensity to cry without reason; as “Santa Claus Continue Reading
On 10th day of Christmas … I read A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig
One of the hardest things to do when you grow up is to recapture that sense of can’t-sleep wonder that once gripped you at Christmas time. As December wound its exciting way ever onwards, adrenaline would pound, anticipation would build and you would find yourself enchanted with every last element Continue Reading
Book review: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
We’ve all heard a celebrity say at one time or another that they are just like us – they have to pay bills, look after the kids, run errands, and deal with getting stuck in traffic. But, of course we all know that their lives are nothing like ours, buffered Continue Reading
On 3rd day of Christmas … I read The Green Road by Anne Enright
Christmas is a strange time of year for many families. By turns wondrous, magical and one-of-a-kind, a chance for far-flung and emotionally disparate members to come together in some form of togetherness, it can also feel like an endurance test, a trial of of sorts that begins at the Continue Reading
Book review: A Very Special Year by Thomas Montasser
You would be hard pressed to find an avid reader anywhere who doesn’t possess an enduring love affair with bookshops. They are a magical place, full of ripe possibility, opportunities without number to pursue lives wholly different from your own, to become a pirate, a 18th century tycoon of Continue Reading
Book review: Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy
No matter how open someone may appear on the surface, the odds are that somewhere with them lurks secrets unspoken, some possibly even unacknowledged, that may never see the light of day, regardless of how close they may be to their loved ones. This idea, that we never truly know Continue Reading