George Lamming on “The politics of reading”
While I was in Barbados over Christmas and New Year, I went to a literary event – the 12th annual award ceremony for the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment,…
Monday morning inspiration
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas…
British “state of the nation” novels
One of my fellow Legend Press authors, Mark Piggott, wrote an interesting article in the Independent about ‘state of the nation’ novels.…
“Gustave Flaubert” by Andrew Brown
This is not your standard biography. Translator Andrew Brown abandons the usual chronological approach in favour of an entertaining, thematic narrative that…
“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger
When I talked about why I blogged, I used to use this book as my stock example. Here I am in September 2008, for example: The original idea…
J.D. Salinger and phonies
The other day, I picked up a copy of The Times because of the news of J.D. Salinger’s death on the cover.…
“The Paperchase” by Marcel Theroux
Damien March, a bored BBC journalist on the night shift, suddenly inherits a house on an island off the coast of Cape…