One of the enduring myths of grief is that at some unspecified point, the person caught in its enervating and seemingly endless grasp will simply get up, reassess the sorry state of their life and walk happy into a bright and shiny new life garlanded with alluring possibility, renewed hope Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Breathe Deep and Swim by Jenna Marcus
Grappling with a traumatic situation is never easy. But as Breathe Deep & Swim from Jenna Marcus explores with quiet intensity and a real sense of belonging, there is a power that comes from going through something so challenging with someone you love solidly and unswervingly by your side. Wolfgang Continue Reading
Book review: Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill
Is it possible for love and devotion to flourish at the end of the world? It would be entirely understandable if your instinctive answer to what must sound like a ludicrous question is a harsh and resounding “NO”; after all, when the world you have known and sometimes loved starts Continue Reading
Book review: Architect of Memory by Karen Osborne
Space is not a welcoming environment. The stars may look pretty twinkling far above us on a blue-green ball but venture into the galaxy and you are confronted by a host of challenges, not least of which is humanity itself who in Karen Osborne’s Architects of Memory (A Memory War Continue Reading
Book review: Digging Up Dirt by Pamela Hart
It is always a delight to come across a novel that embodies the very best of a genre and yet also manages to be its own marvellously unique creation. Digging Up Dirt by Pamela Hart sits very much in that rarefied camp, a book that manages to give Agatha Christie Continue Reading
Book review: Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee
If you have been paying attention to the world of late, wrapped up rather despairingly as it is in pandemic, war, climate change and creeping intolerance and extremism, it will not surprise you that hope is in short supply for many people. How can it possibly assert itself in any Continue Reading
Book review: Nancy Business by R. W. R. McDonald
Grief does not have an expiry date. Oh, there are many who thinks that’s exactly what it has, a fixed moment in time which, when reached, magically dissolves all the pain, trauma and loss of having to say goodbye to someone infinitely special, taking with it the complex and unpredictable Continue Reading
Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: Official coffee table book tells the story of Schitt’s Creek
Schitt’s Creek is one of the most clever, funny and heartfelt shows that’s ever appeared on TV/streaming platforms/the entire world’s consciousness. Co-created by son and father Daniel and Eugene Levy, the show started small but grew into a zeitgeist dominating and ward-heavy sitcom hit, the sort of show that possesses Continue Reading
Book review – Over My Dead Body: Murder at #Eurovision by Christoph Fischer
The Eurovision Song Contest, as befits a singing competition marking it 65th anniversary this year, is a great many things – gloriously and deliciously over the top, a great promotional vehicle for aspiring singers or those looking to revive their career, as camp as Christmas and a brilliant way to Continue Reading
#Eurovision 2021 cultural festival book review: The Pelican by Martin Michael Driessen
It may not be wholly or completely so but there is good case to be made that life is, simply by virtue of its underwhelming existence, more than a little disappointing. Quite what it is most of us are expecting is never really clear but if pushed, there’s a good Continue Reading