Archives by Tag '2000′s'
Review: ‘Wildwood Dancing’ by Juliet Marillier
For the past few years, the Old English Thorn and I have spent New Year staying with some lovely friends of ours in Edinburgh. We play lots of games, eat lots of food, drink lots of dubious concoctions and generally have a marvellous time. Even so, there are always times when you just want to [...]
Review: ‘American Gods’ by Neil Gaiman
When I came to select a book to read after finishing Anderby Wold, I don’t think I could have picked something much more different than Neil Gaiman’s had I been trying deliberately to do so. The former is provincial, understated, realistic and oh so English, while the latter is sweeping, outrageous, mythological and (despite its [...]
Review: ‘Black Butterfly’ by Mark Gatiss
I don’t often stray into the world of mystery stories. In our (reasonably extensive) library, there is only one shelf of mystery novels tucked away in a corner. It’s not that I don’t like them per se, it’s just that there are other genres that I prefer. However, I can occasionally be tempted by a [...]
Review: ‘My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time’ by Liz Jensen
After two distinctly disappointing reads I needed something that was sure to be good fun and not to take itself too seriously. Thankfully my mammoth TBR pile is able to rise to any challenge, and after a quick flick through my library I settled on the wonderfully titled by Liz Jensen. This book was first [...]
Review: ‘Water for Elephants’ by Sara Gruen
When I started to see posters appear on the Underground advertising the upcoming film of Sara Gruen’s , I decided that it was probably time to get the book down from my shelves and read it. Although this review has been so long in the writing that the film has now been and gone from [...]
Review: ‘Wedding Tiers’ by Trisha Ashley
A while ago, I spent a very unpleasant morning paying my dentist a great deal of money to cause me a great deal of pain. What I thought would be a simple (hah!) wisdom tooth extraction ended up as a surgical procedure, complete with opening my gums, shaving bits of bone off my jaw, and [...]
Review: ‘Christmas Crackers for Cats’ by Julie and John Hope
Title: Author: Julie and John Hope. Illustrated by Sue Hellard Published: Bantam, 2000, pp. 32. First edition Genre: Humour poetry Blurb: This is a collection of limericks featuring cats and their antics, beautifully illustrated by Sue Hellard. You can learn your cat’s views on life—from why they lust hungrily after your pet canary to the art [...]
Review: ‘The Christmas Fox I: Ghost Writer’ by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Title: The Christmas Fox I: Ghost Writer Author: Tim Mackintosh-Smith Published: Slightly Foxed, 2005, pp. 31. First edition Genre: Short story Blurb: Speaking via its ghost-writer, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, the Arabic manuscript of Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi tells its own true, if admittedly incredible, story. Set in medieval Cairo and Aleppo, seventeenth-century Oxford and 1960s London, it [...]
Review: ‘The Lieutenant’s Lover’ by Harry Bingham
Title: The Lieutenant’s Lover Author: Harry Bingham Published: Harper, 2006, pp. 442. Originally published 2006 Blurb: Misha is an aristocratic young officer in the army when the Russian revolution sweeps away all his certainties. Tonya is a nurse from an impoverished family in St Petersburg. They should have been bitter enemies; and yet they fall [...]
Review: ‘Tales from the Country Matchmaker’ by Patricia Warren
Title: Author: Patricia Warren Published: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, pp. 248. Originally published 2003. Genre: Memoir Blurb: Since she founded the Farmers’ and Country Bureau from her farmhouse in the Peak District more than twenty years ago, Patricia has been helping love to blossom the length and breadth of rural England. She has hundreds of [...]