Have you ever talked to yourself? Such is the stigma attached to any kind of mental abnormality, one is inclined to answer ‘no’. Privately, though, we do all talk to ourselves. Thoughts seem to bubble up unbidden. We issue reminders, cajolements, praise and corrections to ‘ourselves’ (whoever that may be). Our mental life is more […]
Here is a debut novel which is getting a lot of praise by word of mouth. Give this psychological thriller a try. The summary is as follows. Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace: he has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You’d like to get to know Grace better. But it’s
Behind Closed Doors Read More »
Most of us have a picture of the Victorians in our minds. Straight-laced (on the surface). Women bound into suffocating corsets. Piano legs covered for the sake of decency. Industrious pioneers in science and technology. Innovative creators of our railway system. Capitalists. Ruthless exploiters of the industrial poor whilst at the same time being great
Victorians Undone by Kathryn Hughes Read More »
Many attributes have been posited to distinguish humans from other animals. Tool making, complex social organisation, moral sensibility, ritual practice, self-conscious awareness. All are now known to be shared by other animals in some degree. Sophisticated communication is also known to be employed by other animals, although this also had been used as an absolute
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Annie Murray has been infantalising the minds of her readers with carelessly crafted novels of no power and less conviction for some time. Her 22nd, The Doorstep Child, is available now and her devoted readership can expect many a pot boiler to follow. Murray prepared for a literary career by training as a journalist and working for
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Lyn Andrews has been infantalising the minds of her readers with carelessly crafted novels of no power and less conviction for some time. Her 34th, Liverpool Sisters, is available now and her devoted readership can expect many a pot boiler to follow. Andrews prepared for a literary career by attending secretarial college in Liverpool. Find out
Dilly Court has been enriching the lives of her readers with carelessly crafted novels of no power and less conviction for some time. Her 23th, The Button Box, is available now and her devoted readership can expect many a pot boiler to follow. Court writes Dillygently every morning before rewarding herself with a custard cream and
Katie Fforde (http://www.katiefforde.com/) describes on her website how being addicted to Mills & Boon novels prepared her for the literary life. It is love, indeed, which motivates this ‘Sunday Times No.1 Bestseller’. Ambrose Bierce may have quipped that love is ‘a temporary insanity curable by marriage’. His view was that body chemistry has to
Ambrose Bierce quipped that love is ‘a temporary insanity curable by marriage’. Body chemistry has to overcome reason to compel the sticky intimacy required for reproduction. It’s the price extracted from the individual for sexual reproduction. The subject of countless narratives in poetry, song, story and novel, the insanity of reading about love shows no
