I know I know it’s Stephen King, but when he stays away from the horror, he’s actually a bloody good writer. This volume contains two classic short stories that have subsequently been made into movies: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (filmed as The Shawshank Redemption) and The Body (filmed as Stand By Me). King’s writing is spare and […]
Latest Reviews
Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want it by Maile Meloy
Meloy is such a talented writer I’d happily read anything she’d written, even her shopping list. This collection defies categorisation; you just kind of have to read it to appreciate it. So good.
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Just read the first story in this collection and you’ll get it. The power and horror and the beauty of the short story, perfectly encapsulated.
Heartstone by CJ Sansom
Samson’s account of the sinking of the King’s warship, the Mary Rose, in Hearstone is unforgettable. Sansom renders it real, compete with rats frantically clambouring over the netting as the ship sinks into the water with the trapped men beneath. This is what Samson is so good at; history so vital and compelling it makes […]
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall is very good, but Bring Up The Bodies is even better. Ridiculous to be reading about Cromwell and Henry’s courting of Jane Seymour and the trial of Anne Boleyn as if you don’t know what happens next, but Mantel makes you live through those times instead of just knowing about them. She’s so good, you […]
Imperium by Robert Harris
Imperium rocks. It’s the first book in a trilogy about Cicero and his life in Ancient Rome, narrated by Cicero’s secretary/slave, Tiro. If only history were always this sensibly written and accessible. Love it. The following two books in the trilogy are not quite as gripping but still very readable.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
What’s shocking about this book is that it was written by a man. How, just how does Michael Cunningham get woman so profoundly right? The Hours gives us three different women in three different eras. One of them is Virginia Woolf. All three women are dealing with a profound sense of loss and longing. As Jack Nicholson’s […]
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
It’s a classic for a reason – profoundly good, unexpectedly funny and unforgettable. If you were unfortunate enough not to encounter it in your early teens, read it now. But whatever you do, don’t read the appalling Go Set a Watchman afterwards. That book should never have been published. It makes me so mad I […]