Welcome to my website. It’s mostly book reviews and accounts of my walking, hillwalking and mountaineering trips over the years, plus a mixed bag of other articles. If you want to get in touch please email me – I’m always pleased to hear from anyone who’s read anything here!
Real Tigers & Spook Street by Mick Herron (2 books)
After I found the second book in this series a bit disappointing (see ‘Dead Lions’) I was slow getting round to reading the next ones. Happily, ‘Real Tigers’ and then ‘Spook Street’ lived up to the promise of the original … Continue reading →
With A Mind To Kill by Anthony Horowitz
Horowitz has written several books continuing the work of famous authors, notably Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes and Ian Fleming/James Bond. I read one of his Holmes books, ‘House of Silk’, and enjoyed it. This one, a Bond story, not so much. … Continue reading →
A Dodo at Oxford by Michael Johnson & Philip Atkins
This meticulously researched spoof of the diary of a late seventeenth-century student in Oxford who kept a dodo in his room will be specially enjoyed by anyone who knows something about the culture that makes Oxford what it was then … Continue reading →
Sanctuary by Dave Hutchinson
Another ripping success for Hutchinson with this his second, and overall the third “book of the Aftermath” (if this doesn’t make sense, see the footnote here). This time the setting is mostly Oxford, but of course it’s not an Oxford … Continue reading →
Not Hamlet by Janet Suzman
As her honour affirms, Dame Janet Suzman is one of the great stage actors of our time. She is also an acclaimed director. So her personal insight into some of the great female roles in Western classic theatre is a … Continue reading →
Fake Heroes by Otto English
Not a follow-up but in the same vein as his previously published ‘Fake History‘, Otto English turns his debunking searchlight on “heroes”. In ten chapters each devoted to one hero, he sets out to show that they are all deeply … Continue reading →
Haven by Adam Roberts
This is the second book in the collaboration between Dave Hutchinson and Adam Roberts which started with Hutchinson’s ‘Shelter’. The third title, Hutchinson’s ‘Sanctuary’ has just been published; I have not yet received my copy. I have nothing original to … Continue reading →
Shelter by Dave Hutchinson
In ‘Shelter’, written after completion and publication of the ‘Fractured Europe‘ novels and with the strapline ‘Book One of the Aftermath’, Hutchinson returns to the setting of a post-apocalyptic world. However in this one there is no time distortion, there … Continue reading →
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō
Matsuo Bashō was a 17th Century Japanese poet considered to be a master of the haiku, a traditional form of poem written in three sections of five, seven and five syllables. In his comprehensive introduction translator Yuasa traces the history … Continue reading →
South West Coast Path – Day 11
Morwenstow to Bude 7 June 2023 Distance on Coast Path: 11.6km; ascent: 407m Total distance: 12.3km; ascent: 407m Walking time: 3h 31′ Total time: 5h 08′ (all stats to Bude lock gates) Overnight: Sea Jade Guest House In much better sprits … Continue reading →