Reading Ishiguro’s novels out of sequence – this is the second to be published – possibly makes it harder to give a fair assessment, as expectations are already set. The acclaimed quality of his writing is as evident here as … Continue reading →
Fifteen years after it won the Booker prize I finally got round to reading this book. It is an impressive achievement: amusing, exciting, and entertaining; complex and mysterious. Intertwined stories are reflected and echoed in each other. It’s a post-modern … Continue reading →
The high standard continues in the third book. If anything the "detection" takes second place to the stories of the characters: one leading player is effectively sidelined for the whole of the book while others take a more prominent role. … Continue reading →
The second book in the series continues Mma Ramotswe’s story and is as delightful as the first. Maintaining the format there is one investigation which is pursued through the book, interspersed with shorter "cases" and development of the principal characters.
Continue reading →A self-confessed grumpy old git walks and cycles from Land’s End to John O’Groats with a mixture of good humour and bad temper. Interesting enough for a quick read, but the book needs something more to stand out from the … Continue reading →
Let’s be honest: despite the “bestseller” label and the eulogies on the back cover, this is far from being a great book. Here are echoes of many powerful classics – “The Magus“, “Crime and Punishment“, “Catcher in the Rye“, “Lord … Continue reading →
Not having done any Chaucer at school, reading The Canterbury Tales is one of those things I promised myself I would find time for and am pleased to have done at last! Although some parts are rather tedious six centuries … Continue reading →
This is the first of Alexander McCall Smith’s books in this series, set in Botswana, in which he introduces his principal character Mma Precious Ramotswe. The book combines a fictional biography of Mma Ramotswe with a series of short-story style … Continue reading →
Despite the titles of Mears’ popular TV series “Extreme Survival” and “World of Survival”, this is not a survival handbook. If I understand Mears correctly, he draws a distinction between “bushcraft” and “survival”. Bushcraft is an end in itself, a … Continue reading →
Elizabeth Main was one of the early pioneers of Alpine mountaineering, and especially, it follows, of women’s mountaineering. She was also an accomplished self-taught photographer. This book is based on a collection of her early photographs now housed in the … Continue reading →