Dying in the Wool by Frances Brody is a '20s-set crime novel which I've resisted reading for a while. Partly, this is because of the first-person narrative. I'm not sure why but first-person annoys me, which in itself is odd given my favourite books. But eventually, feeling a bit like I was being followed around… Continue reading Dying in the Wool
Tag: book review
The Trouble with Larks: Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter
Let me start by saying that I like PG Wodehouse’s dim-witted Bertie Wooster and his gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves. Mostly short stories, these are narrated by Wooster himself, who is a generally idle man-about-town between the Wars. His narration is as vague as his thinking, but is still amusing. Wooster spends his time getting into scrapes,… Continue reading The Trouble with Larks: Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter
Book or TV show: Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates
In taking on the British Crime Classics Challenge and rediscovering my love of a good detective novel, I’ve decided to rummage through the shelves for non-Golden Age detectives of a similar nature. I discovered Miss Fisher via the quite wonderful Australian TV adaptation, currently on Netflix, and was hooked from the first note of the… Continue reading Book or TV show: Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates
An Adaptation of an Adaptation: Expecting Someone Taller?
My favourite of the Norse myths is the Saga of the Volsungs, Odin's descendants including Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer. It's a saga which was well-known throughout the mediaeval Germanic world, being vaguely historical (one of the characters is Attila the Hun) and turned into the German poem Nibelungenlied. It's the story which Richard Wagner used as… Continue reading An Adaptation of an Adaptation: Expecting Someone Taller?
Death of an Airman
First published in 1934, Death of an Airman by Christopher St John Sprigg impressed no less an authority on crime fiction than the crime reviewer for the Sunday Times: Dorothy L. Sayers, creator of amateur detective Lord Peter Whimsey. When the Bishop of Cootamundra, Australia, goes to the Baston Aero Club, England, he expects to… Continue reading Death of an Airman
Review: Heatwave
I was introduced to the TV series Castle by a friend, and I was hooked from the first episode. If you haven't come across it, it's a comedy-crime series starring Nathan Fillion as crime novelist Richard Castle who becomes the side-kick of NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic). He is, you see, inspired by Beckett… Continue reading Review: Heatwave
Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
I received this book in possibly one of the best ways to receive a book: Quite at random, through the post, a borrowing from a friend. Quite appropriately, too, for this book, which is written in letter-form and begins by exploring what books and reading meant for the Guernsey islanders under the German Occupation of… Continue reading Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Review: Brideshead Revisited
I've always liked a heart-breaking sort of a story, probably a result of many hours listening to The Pursuit of Love when I was a child. I like books which make me feel. Life doesn't often have the ability to move me to tears or cause me to care, but fiction? There's nothing more powerful… Continue reading Review: Brideshead Revisited
Review: The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse
I’m not much of an artist, and usually I’m not much interested in things I can’t really do, but over the last few years I have begun to develop an appreciation for drawings. For sketches and cartoons. Especially, it must be said, for political cartoons. One of my favourite cartoonists is the late David Low.… Continue reading Review: The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse
Review: A Town Like Alice
My mother gave me A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute when I was about 11, insisting that it was a wonderful novel. At this distance, I can't remember why I didn't read it. Probably I just thought Yeah, right, and found something else. And yet, now I have finally read it, she was, and is, absolutely… Continue reading Review: A Town Like Alice
