Inspiring Older Readers
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead posted on 12 Oct 2019
For a boy raised on television drama, an encounter with an absurdist comedy was as bewildering and alien as it’s possible to get ...
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A Child of the Jago posted on 05 Oct 2019
First published in 1896, A Child of the Jago is arguably the most significant novel from a school of writing that’s often referred to as ‘slum literature’.
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The Sign of the Book posted on 01 Oct 2019
Back in June 2019, I reviewed Dunning’s third instalment of his biblio-detective series featuring the ex-policeman turned book dealer, Cliff Janeway.
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The Making of Poetry posted on 27 Sep 2019
Literary biography and literary criticism can often be a difficult read if you’re not an avid student of those genres...
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When I Grow Up posted on 24 Sep 2019
Sometimes a memoir of this kind can tell you more about the writer in the way it’s told rather than in the contents.
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Critical Essays posted on 22 Sep 2019
It’s not a revolutionary statement to say that the very best of Orwell’s writing is to be found not in his novels but his essays...
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Another view on Albert Camus’ The Plague posted on 19 Sep 2019
Guest reviewer, Alun Severn brings out some important additional ways of reading Camus' masterpiece.
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Night Boat To Tangier posted on 16 Sep 2019
The setting for Kevin Barry’s extraordinary new novel – tough, lyrical, referential and intense – is the Spanish ferry port of Algeciras...
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Black & White: A portrait of Aubrey Beardsley posted on 13 Sep 2019
I last read this rather beautifully produced little essay back when I was just 19 ...
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The Labyrinth of the Spirits posted on 06 Sep 2019
This 800+ page novel concludes the quartet of linked sequence that are grouped together under the collective title, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books