Books

  Shakespeare may have been the one to remark on it in his play As You Like It, but the truth is all of us, at least the self-aware among us, have wondered at one time or another if we are merely playing the parts assigned to us and if Continue Reading

  There are many things that define us as human – the need for belonging and connection, a craving for justice, a fear of the unknown, violence, tenderness, love, the need for redemption and forgiveness, and a curiosity about happens when we shuffle off this mortal coil. All of these Continue Reading

  If you’ve ever had the feeling that your life isn’t your own, that the life you’re living is just a little bit off-kilter, than you’ll find a lot to identify with in Gavin Extence’s second novel, The Mirror World of Melody Black. Creatively-titled since the titular character isn’t the Continue Reading

  Barney is a loser. Shhhh that’s OK, he won’t mind me saying that – after all it’s not like it isn’t something that Barney Conroy, protagonist in Guy Sigley’s hilariously all-too-relatable novel Barney (A novel about a guy called Barney) hasn’t told himself every day of his miserable, unfulfilling Continue Reading

  If you’ever wondered what might happen when climate change has run its inevitable course and the seas have risen and the land has not, then look no further than Kirsty Logan’s luminously poetic take on the apocalypse, The Gracekeepers. Taking place in a world flooded to the point where Continue Reading

  The apocalypse ain’t what it used to be. That’s not to say it’s dropped all its end-of-the-world, doom-and-gloom garb in favour of bright summery colours and a jaunty gait, but an increasing number of writers are beginning to ask themselves, in ways usually poetic and insightful – once the Continue Reading

  There is already a distinct of otherness about Tommi Grayson, way before the transformative (literal and otherwise) experiences of Who’s Afraid?, the impressive debut novel by Maria Lewis, take hold. Hers is clearly an identity forged in the fires of exclusion, of not quite fitting in growing up, of Continue Reading

  Retirement is supposed to be a golden age. A chance to read your newspaper, watch some cricket (if you’re so inclined), ponder life, and engage in long fattening lunches and idle conversation. And of course, tend to your newly-delivered baby elephant Ganesha left to you by your quirky uncle Bansi. Continue Reading

  Like cat videos and the word “Like”, memes, the perfect joining together of picture and word, find their natural home on the internet. One in particular, “I Can’t Adult Today. Please Don’t Make me Adult”, is especially popular with grown-ups everywhere, an exquisite summation of the exhaustion that comes Continue Reading