My publisher, Legend Press, is offering a free sample of the first two chapters of On the Holloway Road as a special Christmas giveaway. Click here to access it – not sure how long it’ll be available. Merry Christmas to all my readers, and thanks for all the wonderful comments over the year – it’s [...]
About Andrew Blackman
I am the author of “On the Holloway Road”, published by Legend Press in February 2009. The book has won the Luke Bitmead Writer’s Bursary and the Novel Beginnings First Chapter Contest, and has been shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize. I recently moved back to the UK after spending six years in New York, where I worked as a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
“Tail of the Blue Bird” by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
This is a VERY belated post for Ghanaian Literature Week, organised by the wonderful Kinna. I signed up for it back in October, but since then a few things have sucked up a lot of my time and energy. Anyway I did read a Ghanaian book during the week itself, and it was an excellent [...]
German Literature Month readalong, Effi Briest – part 3
So it’s week 3 of German Literature Month, organised by Lizzie and Caroline. We’re reading Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane. Why do you think Effi kept Crampas’s letters? I found it a little implausible at the time, because it was such a huge risk for her to take, and she must have known what the [...]
German literature month readalong – part 2
It’s the second week of the Effi Briest readalong, hosted by Lizzy and Caroline as part of German Literature Month. Here are Caroline’s questions and my answers. What strikes you most in this novel, what do like or dislike the most? One thing I like about the novel is the gradual building of tension through [...]
German Literature Month readalong – part 1
I am participating in the readalong of Theodore Fontaine’s Effi Briest as part of German Literature Month. Here are my reactions to the first 15 chapters. Questions posed by Lizzy. Q1: Welcome to the 1st German Literature Month Readalong! Had you heard of Theodor Fontane and Effi Briest before now? What enticed you to readalong with [...]
“The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell
This book is pitched just at the right level for me. I am interested in philosophy, but don’t have enough knowledge of it to be able to understand some of the more complex works. I tried Wittgenstein recently, for instance, and it didn’t take. But this short introduction to some of the basic problems of [...]
The Secret Life of Pronouns, etc…
My Dad sent me an interesting article from New Scientist magazine recently called “The Secret Life of Pronouns”. It’s based on a book of the same name by James W. Pennebaker. Now the article was fascinating (I’ll get to it in a minute), but I just wanted to put in a quick plea first. Please, [...]
Congratulations, Julian Barnes!
So he won his Booker after all, the man who’s been shortlisted three times but never won before, and who once famously referred to the prize as “posh bingo”. To be honest I’m a bit sick of the Booker by now – there seems to have been more publicity about it than usual, or maybe [...]
“C” by Tom McCarthy
Well, that was a bit different. Don’t come to this book expecting plot, character development or anything like that. The main character, Serge, is like a conduit for signals from the radio that his father is experimenting with when he’s born and that he himself develops a fascination with as he gets older. He’s not [...]
New Booker rival announced
I was interested to see today that a new Literature Prize is being established, possibly from next year, with the intention to rival the Man Booker Prize. I wasn’t aware of the controversy about the Booker apparently prioritising readability over artistic achievement. The two shortlisted books I’ve read so far have certainly had plenty of [...]
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“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
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Introducing “A Virtual Love”, coming to a bookshop near you in Spring 2013
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Finding some inspiration
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Beauty is a sleeping cat
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“Half Blood Blues” by Esi Edugyan
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Great opportunity for unpublished UK writers
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How to write a book review
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How writers generate ideas
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The Sense of an Ending, explained
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How much would you pay for a short story?
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HeeKyung: I couldn't quite understand the ending until I re...
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Bruno D\'Itri: How Veronica really behaved towards Tony is up for...
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HPM: Why does Veronica behave so obstructively? Yes, i...
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Andrew Blackman: Yes, that would be good! I like contests with no g...
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Geosi: I wish it was extended to africans as well....lol!...
