Sarah Dunant (http://sarahdunant.com/) is probably best known for presenting the live BBC nightly culture programme The Late Show (1989-1996). After that she presented the BBC Radio 3 programme Night Waves. She is the author of 10 novels to date. One of her most enjoyable is The Birth of Venus (2003), set in late 15th Century Florence. The […]
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The novelist Molly Gloss (http://mollygloss.com/) has earned numerous awards, including an Oregon Book Award, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the PEN West Fiction Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award and a Whiting Writers Award. If you want a really ‘feel good read’ set in Oregon, The Hearts of Horses (2007) is for you. In the winter
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The prolific Nora Roberts (aka J.D. Robb, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Roberts and http://noraroberts.com/ ) is entertaining us again this Autumn with Devoted in Death. The 51st title in this police procedure detective crime series, Robb’s world is clearly a dangerous place. There have been more murders than during an average sunny afternoon in Midsomer. The summary is as follows. It’s
Denis Healey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Healey) died on Saturday (3rd October 2015). He was a British politician of huge gravitas who found himself in government during a highly dangerous time for Britain, economically, in the 1970s. Standardly described as ‘the best Prime Minister Britain never had’, Healey possessed what a great many politicians today lack, namely a hinterland of
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Have you noticed recently in bookshops how the shelves are groaning with self-help guides on happiness? This is accompanied by endless newspaper and magazine advice columns on how to be a happy (or happier) bunny. Whereas at one time the church and religion instructed us on how to pursue a rich and fulfilling life, now secular
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Christa Wolf (née Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929, Landsberg an der Warthe – 1 December 2011, Berlin, http://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/christa-wolf/ ) was a German literary critic, novelist, and essayist. She was one of the best-known writers to emerge from the former East Germany. In Cassandra (1983) the author retells the story of the fall of Troy, but from the point of
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Amy Tan (born February 19, 1952, http://www.amytanauthor.com/) is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-American experience. Her best-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages. In 1993, this book was adapted into a commercially successful film directed by Wayne Wang. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/?ref_=nv_sr_1) The brief outline of The
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Fans of Lee Child (http://www.leechild.com/) and his detective Jack Reacher will be delighted that the author has delivered again in 2015. Here is a summary of the detective’s 20th adventure to tempt you away from doing anything useful. Jack Reacher wants to know how a town could come to be called ‘Mother’s Rest’. But no one will tell him.
Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001, http://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/dec/21/artsandhumanities.highereducation) — known as W.G. Sebald or Max Sebald — was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors and had been
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