Author Archives: drewsmith28

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About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

A legacy of spies by John Le Carre (Viking)

Posted on September 18, 2017 by drewsmith28

“What follows is a truthful account, as best as I am able to provide it, of my role in the British deception operation codenamed Windfall..  THIS sequel to the Spy Who Came in from the Cold is probably best read … Continue reading →

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Vodka politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad (Oxford Uiversity Press)

Posted on August 31, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Nikita Khrushchev was an oddly disarming fellow: five foot three and nearly as wide, with a face that seemed to be made from putty”. THE big argument in this lush, brutal academic history of Russia is how vodka has fashioned … Continue reading →

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The trip to Echo Springs by Olivia Laing (Canongate)

Posted on August 23, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Here’s a thing. Iowa City, 1973. Two men in a car, a Ford Falcon convertible that’s seen better days. It’s winter, the kind of cold that hurts bones and lungs, that reddens knuckles, makes noses run. If you could, by … Continue reading →

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The 7th function of language by Laurent Binet (Harvill Secker)

Posted on July 6, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Life is not a novel. Or at least you would like to believe so.” How good is this tornado of a novel?  The plot is wildly ambitious, an intellectual version of the da Vinci Code, and mixing real-life characters with … Continue reading →

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Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Harper Collins)

Posted on June 26, 2017 by drewsmith28

“There was going to be a funeral.”   This is two books lashed together as one. The first is a detective story. We are gently introduced in a slow, west country way, to the cast of villagers. The net curtains … Continue reading →

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Bad business by Robert B Parker (No Exit Press)

Posted on June 13, 2017 by drewsmith28

‘Do you do divorce work’ the woman said. ‘I do,’ I said. ‘Are you any good?’ ‘I am,’ I said.   THE late Robert Brown Parker wrote more than 40 Spenser detective novels plus another nine around the character Jessie … Continue reading →

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My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (Penguin)

Posted on May 24, 2017 by drewsmith28

“There was a time, and it was many years ago now, when I had to stay in hospital for almost nine weeks” THE thing about writing solely on a macro level is that there is no horizon over which the sun … Continue reading →

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The vanishing futurist by Charlotte Hobson (Faber)

Posted on May 4, 2017 by drewsmith28

“In May 1914, much against the advice of my parents, I took up the post of governess to the Robelev family of No 7 Gagarinsky Lane, Moscow” THERE is an endearing description on page two of this provocative, colourful entertaining, … Continue reading →

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The Third Plate by Dan Barber (Abacus)

Posted on April 21, 2017 by drewsmith28

“A corn cob, dried and slightly shriveled, arrived in the mail not long after we opened Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Along with the cob was a check for $1,000” THE best place to read this book would be on … Continue reading →

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Outline by Rachel Cusk (Vintage)

Posted on April 5, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Before the flight I was invited for lunch at a London club with a billionaire I’d been promised had liberal credentials.” I GOT my copy of this book second hand. Various passages were marked up as if the previous reader … Continue reading →

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