When you think of your favourite fiction, you might think of complex, brooding characters, or labyrinthian plot twists that keep you guessing to the final page. Sure, these are what make stories great. But the unsung hero of great fiction is, in my book (pun intended), well-drawn settings. When a work of literature is rooted […]Read More
Have you ever read a sapphic book? If you haven’t, you’re missing out! The term “sapphic” is generally used by the LGBTQ+ community to designate women or woman-aligned people who love other women or woman-aligned people. Sapphic books don’t need to have a romance plot either. As long as the character is sapphic and this […]Read More
Joan Didion emerged as part of the “New Journalism” movement in the 1960s, a literary genre which blended journalistic facts with techniques readers usually found in novels: condensed events, rearranged dialogue, and composite characters. Although this marked a fascinating development for the field of journalism, this writing was criticised as “parajournalism” by publishers. Traditional outlets […]Read More
During the first lockdown back in March I searched for hope and solace in books. However, the daily uncertainty that engulfed our lives affected me greatly and my love for reading was tested to the limit. I often became restless. The old pleasure I used to always get from sinking into a comfortable chair and […]Read More
It’s dull. It’s academic. It’s pretentious pish-posh. These are some of the stereotypes people associate with literary theory and criticism. Freud is about the only exception to the rule because at least he talks about sex and not the symbolism of the colour of a curtain. But if you’re a serious reader or casual page-turner […]Read More
All my life I have lived within walking distance to the quaint village of Haworth, home of the legendary Brontë sisters, and deep in Brontë country. My literary education at school almost always consisted of studying one of their classic novels, having school trips to the nearby Brontë Parsonage Museum, and walking across the moors […]Read More
Howard Phillips Lovecraft never lived to see his name cemented among the literary giants of the twentieth century. Dead of cancer before his 47th birthday, his existence was so obscure that even his estranged wife was unaware of his death for more than eight years. His short stories – now recognised as ground-breaking developments in the […]Read More
For years now, I have had a loose new year’s resolution to get better at reading diversely. Back in 2012, I read an article by a woman who had read a book from every country in the world (193 according to the United Nations, plus two sovereign states). At the time, I counted that I […]Read More
Millions of us have embraced reading as a way to cope in These Unprecedented Times. But with reading piles acquiring social media clout (all the books I read this year!), for some (writers and journalists in particular), reading has become an act of performance, an endless routine in ‘brand maintenance.’ We’ve been instilled with the […]Read More
The start of a new year can mean many different things, with some people viewing it as a chance for a new start. Personally I love the start of a new year because it brings with it a year of new books to get excited for. With so many books coming out this year, from […]Read More
At sixteen, I was often late for class. Weighed down by a satchel, heavy with tomes from fantasy writer George R.R. Martin, I lumbered up each step. I brought two along just in case I read the first gargantuan book in a day. Then, I wasn’t just a reader: I was the Reader. I was […]Read More
If there’s one positive to come out of a global pandemic (and admittedly, there are few), it’s that – like many across the nation – I’ve had plenty of spare time to rediscover my love of reading, and catch up on some of the books I’ve been meaning to read for years. 2020 was also […]Read More
Retired Lothian and Borders Deputy Police Chief Constable and crime writer assembles missing pieces of the Ruxton Case on its 85th anniversary with previously unseen documents. Dr Buck Ruxton and the Murders that Revolutionised Forensic Investigation September 1935 saw “the absolute height of Agatha Christie’s fame and the golden age of crime fiction and crime writers” […]Read More
I started working in an independent bookshop the day after the second national lockdown was lifted. The White House Bookshop is in Burnham Market, on the north Norfolk coast. It sits halfway around a large green, looking over to a coffee shop, the fishmonger, and an independent deli. It’s about as idyllic as you could […]Read More
Getting lost in stories, learning about new topics or people and discovering new perspectives are some of my favourite past-times. And what better way to do that than reading new books? Unsurprisingly, there are quite a lot of books on my Christmas wish list this year. Some of them are there to challenge me, some […]Read More
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