Reviews

Feb 11, 20171 min read

466. Artemis Cooper - Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence

This is a very good biography of Elizabeth Jane Howard, whose Cazalet novels I enjoyed a year or 2 ago, and who was married to Peter...

Dec 10, 20161 min read

451. Elizabeth Buchan - The New Mrs Clifton

Paul Scott apart, this would I think be my book of the year this year. A library book that Paddy enjoyed, set in post war England. Quite...

Oct 7, 20161 min read

436. Katarina Bivald - The Readers Of Broken Wheel Recommend

This is a lovely book, totally different and beautifully constructed. A lonely young Swedish woman arrives in the run down Iowa town of...

Aug 17, 20161 min read

425. Edith Wharton - The Age Of Innocence

Another book unread (by me) since May 1977, when we bought it. I couldn’t (quite) get into it; it was good in parts, but the narrative...

Jun 12, 20161 min read

411. Anthony Trollope - Castle Richmond

The other big holiday book, and much better than Dickens. Set in Ireland around the time of the potato famine, it involves two...

May 7, 20161 min read

397. Håkan Nesser - The Living And The Dead In Winsford

Read this largely in the garden on a gloriously sunny Sunday. It is a very good mystery, I suppose, novel. A Swedish TV personality locks...

Jan 21, 20161 min read

371. Charity Norman - The New Woman

A library book via P, although probably a ‘woman’s book’, I loved this, beautifully written with a really well constructed plot – would...

Nov 20, 20151 min read

356. Émile Zola - L'Assommoir

This is a very grim book, in the vein of 'La Terre', but set amongst the Parisian working class. The central figure is Gervaise, who has...

Jul 31, 20151 min read

324. F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender Is The Night

Tried starting this two years ago in Spain; couldn’t get into it. A bit of a curate’s egg; some of his writing is excellent; some less...

Jun 9, 20151 min read

310. Jane Austen - Pride And Prejudice

And now for something completely different, Paddy’s aeroplane reading, rather classier than mine. I haven’t read this for years and my...

Feb 6, 20151 min read

281. Elizabeth Jane Howard - Confusion

Book 3 which takes us from 1942 to the end of the war. Lots of events as the girls grow up and Louise gets married to a dreadful man,...

May 7, 20141 min read

204. John Updike - Couples

Reluctantly, as I hate doing this, I am abandoning this almost halfway through. It is quite different from what I expected — a...

Apr 30, 20141 min read

202. Thomas Hardy - The Return Of The Native

Started this on our abortive trip to Dorset. A strange book, fell a bit between two stools as a novel of manners about intrigues between...

Apr 11, 20141 min read

197. Reginald Hill - Pictures Of Perfection

Read this years ago; Hill got more experimental (not always successfully) as he got older. This is a parody of a classical comedy; no...

Apr 5, 20141 min read

195. Patrick Gale - The Whole Day Through

A beautiful (short) novel, about a couple who were literally a couple at university, meet in later life when he is married, have a brief...

Mar 19, 20141 min read

189. Honoré De Balzac - Old Goriot (Père Goriot)

Read this in English, but Father Goriot sounds a bit naff. Quite a difficult book to read, as no chapters or other natural breaks in the...

Mar 16, 20141 min read

188. Honoré de Balzac - A Harlot High And Low

This is a long and at times difficult book — quite different from no.187 in its breadth and a huge range of characters. Very difficult at...

Aug 31, 20131 min read

140. George Eliot - Silas Marner

Bought this in 1976 and don’t think I have ever read it. It is bloody good. Quite simple, short, and beautifully compressed tale of...

Aug 2, 20131 min read

133. Anthony Burgess - Inside Mr. Enderby

Borrowed a few Burgess books from my Dad after enjoying 'Earthly Powers' so much on holiday. I found this a difficult book; Enderby is...

Jun 29, 20131 min read

124. David Lodge - Therapy

Tried ‘How Far Can you Go’ on return from Spain, but I couldn’t go very far; too many characters sitting around in a church in the...