My second foray into Maigret has hooked me. (more…)
Book Review: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (George R.R. Martin, 2015)
A superb trio of novellas set a century before the events of Game of Thrones. (more…)
Book Review: The Castle of Otranto (Horace Walpole, 1764)
Thunder, lightning, evil princes, crumbling castles, ghostly apparitions, swooning maidens… Crammed to the rafters with cliché, The Castle of Otranto is a 250-year-old bonanza of the Gothic from Horace Walpole, the father of the genre. (more…)
Book Review: Nothing On Earth (Conor O’Callaghan, 2016)
“Everything was caked in orange dust off the building site: the windows, the furniture, the bottles and tins, their packaging, even the dirty dishes in the sink, the loungers out the back, the envelopes in the hall… I could taste the dust coating the inside of my mouth, like paprika left out for years and gone stale, flavourless.” (more…)
Film Review: Kajaki (2014)
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, / And the women come out to cut up what remains, / Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains / An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.” (more…)
Book Review: A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula Le Guin, 1968)
This slim fantasy classic has a powerful message beneath its simple, uncluttered surface. (more…)
Book Review: Sirens (Joseph Knox, 2017)
A confident, powerful, dark debut crime novel that paints a strikingly seedy picture of Manchester’s underworld. (more…)
