Is there anything worse than a right-wing government making huge cuts to services? You wouldn’t think so but there is – humourless lefties constantly telling us that said government will lead to tanks on the streets, repression of the people and the end of civilisation as we know it…
The BFG
2 November 2011 by Leave a Comment
An ongoing bone of contention in a couple of the #BookTwub discussions has been the feud between fans of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl as to which is the greatest children’s author. One week Blyton came out on top but the following week Dahl triumphed…
The Phantom of the Opera
29 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
I’m a fan of musicals. Have I mentioned that before? Only a hundred times a day? Well I do always say that if it’s worth saying, it’s worth saying a lot. I’m writing this review of The Phantom of the Opera while listening to Les Miserables …
Cutting for Stone
27 October 2011 by 1 Comment
A confession to begin with. My name is Louise and I’m a book-buying addict. It can be from Amazon for my Kindle, or in the supermarket or even in the charity shop. Anywhere I can get hold of an interesting looking book I will. One of the downsides of this is that I buy books on a whim and then take a long time to get round to them….
Tam o’ Shanter
26 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been looking for different ways to celebrate Hallowe’en Horror Week. I wanted to review a variety of different films from the benign and funny like Shaun of the Dead to more violent and bloodcurdling shockers like Saw. That was simple enough, but I was still unsure of what to do for book reviews….
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8
25 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love the action, I love the humour, I love the characters. Hell I even love the songs. It was a wrench when the TV series was cancelled but it ended on a high. Sunnydale was destroyed, the hellmouth was sealed and Buffy and most of her friends escaped safely….
The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl
24 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
I know what you’re thinking. This is horror week – what is a classic children’s writer like Roald Dahl doing here? The BFG wasn’t that scary…. True, but one of the most terrifying things in life is the thought of what humans can do…
The Redbreast
19 October 2011 by 2 Comments
The astonishing worldwide success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, and to a lesser extent Henning Mankell’s Wallander series, has opened the eyes of British readers to the appeal of Scandinavian crime writing. In the past couple of weeks Twitter friends have suggested books by Arnaldur Indridason, Asa Larsson and Jo Nesbo….
Romeo Spikes
17 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
When Beautiful Books invited reviewers to read their latest fantasy novel, Romeo Spikes, by Joanne Reay I jumped at the idea. Here was the perfect opportunity to get started on a genre that is a complete mystery to me…
A Means Of Escape
3 October 2011 by 1 Comment
There’s always something a little bit thrilling about reading a book or watching a film where you recognise the setting. I got very excited when a film was released set on the street I grew up on – Red Road. I had that same flutter when I started Joanna Price’s A Means of Escape….