As I read this, now and then I thought of the strange insular world of Gormenghast, as though it had been dialled down into faded, if odd, normality. This isn't a very accurate description of the book, but the eccentricity of an insular, aristocratic existence, built on strange ritual and isolation is in both. All... Continue Reading →
Ducks, Drones and Doctor Faustus
(That time I invited Sleep, Thomas Mann, Lucy Ellmann and John Milton to the same blog post and we all hung out. Heaven.) When starting my current book Salt Lick, the inclusion of a chorus was one of the first decisions I made, though it took a while to learn that it would come from... Continue Reading →
#MyDayInBooks – 13/08/19 in six books
Book 1, Ducks, Newburyport, Lucy Ellmann Before I got up I read pages 803 - 856 of Ducks, Newburyport. This is such a wonderful book. A place to be both lost and adrift in sweet recognition. I felt so much for teenager Stacy, her clumsy, scary courage, her sullen and awkward groping for her adult... Continue Reading →
#MyDayInBooks Part 2
23/10/18 in seven books Book 1 Today I ordered a copy of Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo. The Emperor’s Babe by the same author is in my top ten - beautiful, compelling, the language is a magnificent dream, and Zuleika is one of the best characters I know. Lover Man is more recent. I also... Continue Reading →
#MyDayInBooks part 1
10/10/18 in 5 books Today is a day when many interesting books have crossed paths, and I thought I would share them. Book 1: Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile by Alice Jolly In the early hours, long after I had hoped to go to sleep, utterly gripped, I finished reading Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile. I was... Continue Reading →
Sour Fruit by Eli Allison – review
I'm very happy to review Sour Fruit the debut novel by fellow Unbound author Eli Allison. Here is the blurb: Onion is snatched. Which is proper shit because she still had nearly twenty quid left on her Angry Slut Teen Clothing gift card and now she was never going to get those flamingo-pink leather chaps she’d been eyeing... Continue Reading →
The Gallows Pole – review
The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers, published by Bluemoose Books. The Gallows Pole is rich, wet, dark, glittering. Words glimmer like the clippings of the coins, scattered in peat and moss, across a stony path. Like a bitter cross wind dragging leaves and hail, the land and the weather drive the story as much as... Continue Reading →
In Our Mad and Furious City – review
Review - In Our Mad And Furious City, by Guy Gunaratne This is a truly wonderful book, I really urge you to read it. The writing is beautiful, portraying the violence and love of lives pulled into awkward, sometimes impossible shapes by a mad and furious city that seems to demand all and offer little in... Continue Reading →
Reviews – please!
In an age when algorithms set the agenda, it becomes crucial for authors to get reviews on sites such as Amazon. I have heard that fifty is the magic number. I am delighted with the dozen or so reviews I have, but would love to accumulate more - several three star reviews will do more... Continue Reading →
Review: Grief is the Thing With Feathers
17 April 2017 Grief is the Thing With Feathers, Max Porter Published by Faber and Faber IN my book Twice the Speed of Dark, there is a line in which grief manifests as a crow. It is a moment when Anna has finally found the fortitude to look at old photographs of her daughter Caitlin, who... Continue Reading →
Lulu Allison, contemporary fiction author 