"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
~ Dr. Suess
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
~ Douglas Adams
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
~ Anton Chekhov
Briefly, The Absolutist is a story set mostly in the trenches of the First World War, alternatively narrated in present tense in the trenches and told in retrospective in Norwich in 1919. Tristan Sadler has letters to deliver to Marian, sister of his friend Will Bancroft. Will was shot as a traitor and a coward and Tristan […]
To follow up on our posts here and here about the National Book Awards, the winners have been announced! The official website of the National Book Foundation states that the 5 winners were chosen from a wide selection: In 2011, there were 1,223 books submitted for the National Book Awards. The number of books by […]
Jane Austen, despite being dead since 1817, continues to outsell many living authors. Six books and a handful of letters cemented her in the consciousness of the Western literary world, with Mr Darcy becoming the template upon which many a moody suitor has been based. Austen’s biting social satire was veiled in wit and setting, […]
As the world watches the growth of the Occupy movement and its often attendant V-masked protestors, it is a good time to look at and discuss the V for Vendetta graphic novel, and whether it is still relevant nearly thirty years after its publication. (There’s a fascinating article here in which David Lloyd discusses the […]
Some days I like to pretend that I’m Jason Statham in Crank, and that I will die if my heart rate drops to normal levels. It is on days like that that I crank up the music to 11. Today, of course, is just such a day: it’s 11/11/11, after all. To celebrate, NPR’s All […]
While this year’s 11th of November is special because of the year and the resulting number palindrome, it has long been a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers. According to the Wikipedia article, Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died […]
There can be no doubt that writing a Sherlock Holmes novel, as endorsed by the Conan Doyle estate, must be accompanied by the kind of pressure and expectations that only first term American presidents must be familiar with. Not only is it a series with over a hundred years of uninterrupted popularity, but it also […]
It has definitely been the year of the comic book and super hero movie, with Thor, Green Lantern, Green Hornet and Captain America rocketing to the top of the bestseller charts. Next year we will get to enjoy The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. There are also rumours of another Superman movie called The Man of Steel due in 2013 after the […]
Where to start when discussing the most played character in English literature? For now (and to stop this blog post from turning into the thesis it could so easily be), I’d like to share my undying love of the last two reinventions of Sherlock Holmes on the big screen and the latest novel as endorsed […]
Besides having a charming cover (the paperback one is nowhere near as good as the trade paperback), My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher may be one of the best books of this year, an especially noteworthy achievement since it is ostensibly geared towards teens. The story starts with the line ‘My sister lives on […]
