Archives by Tag 'England'
Review: ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess
Title: A Clockwork Orange Author: Anthony Burgess Published: William Heinemann Ltd. for the Independent’s Banned Books series, 2007, pp. 158 Genre: Dystopian fiction Blurb: It’s the near future. In an unnamed city (London? Berlin? Prague?) Alex and his teenage droogs are on the prowl, spending their evenings looking for ultra-violence, rape, even murder. There’s a price [...]
Review: ‘Lady Oracle’ by Margaret Atwood
Title: Lady Oracle Author: Margaret Atwood Published: Virago Press, 1990, pp. 345 Genre: General fiction Blurb: From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband, from writer of romances to distinguished poet — Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple [...]
Review: ‘Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day’ by Winifred Watson
Title: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Author: Winifred Watson Published: Persephone Books, 2008, pp. 234 Genre: Early twentieth century fiction Blurb: Miss Pettigrew is a down-on-her-luck, middle-aged governess sent by her employment agency to work for a nightclub singer rather than a household of unruly children. Over a period of 24 hours her life [...]
Review: ‘The Stone Book Quartet’ by Alan Garner
The four books which make up this volume were first published individually. “As the stories grow into one story, so one’s awareness of the emblems and symbols deepens! Garner binds the reader to him and he shows us the author working with language to make his book as his characters worked with stone and iron. [...]
Review: ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian’ by Marina Lewycka
When their recently widowed father announces that he plans to remarry, sisters Vera and Nadezhda realize that they must learn to put aside a lifetime of bitter rivalry in order to save him. The new woman in his life is Valentina, a voluptuous gold-digger from Ukraine, fifty years his junior, with fabulous breasts and a [...]
Review: ‘The Affinity Bridge’ by George Mann
Welcome to the bizarre and dangerous world of Victorian London, a city teetering on the edge of revolution. Its people are ushering in a new era of technology, dazzled each day by new inventions. Airships soar in the skies over the city, whilst ground trains rumble through the streets and clockwork automatons are programmed to [...]
Review: ‘Prince Caspian’ by C. S. Lewis
Troubled times have come to the magical land of Narnia. Gone are the days of peace and freedom when the animals, dwarfs, trees and flowers could live in absolute peace and harmony. Civil war is dividing the kingdom and final destruction is close at hand. Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne, resolves to [...]
Review: ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C. S. Lewis
What begins as a simple game if hide-and-seek quickly turns into the adventure of a lifetime when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy walk through the wardrobe and into the land of Narnia. There they find a cold, snow-covered land frozen into eternal winter by the evil White Witch. All who challenge her rule are turned [...]
Review: ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ by C. S. Lewis
When Digory and Polly are tricked by Digory’s peculiar Uncle Andrew into becoming part of an experiment, they set off on the adventure of a lifetime. What happens to the children when they touch Uncle Andrew’s magic rings is far beyond anything even the old magician could have imagined. Hurtled into the Wood between the [...]
Review: ‘The Trespass’ by Barbara Ewing
London 1849. The capital city is living in fear. Cholera is everywhere. Eminent MP Sir Charles Cooper decides it is too risky for his younger daughter, the strangely beautiful and troubled Harriet, and sends her-but not her beloved sister Mary-to the countryside. Rusholme is a world away from London, full of extraordinary relations: Harriet’s cousin [...]