Category Archives: Biography

Lessons for Young Artists by David Gentleman (Penguin)

Posted on December 7, 2025 by drewsmith28

“What is drawing for? Why are we tempted to do it at all?” ONE could ask also ask why it is that one artist becomes better known than another? David Gentleman is less known than many contemporaries, less valued in … Continue reading →

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I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (Simon & Schuster)

Posted on August 2, 2025 by drewsmith28

“In early August 2018, I tried to commit suicide.” IN a pompous review the Guardian suggested this memoir would have benefited from a bit of editing. That would have been a mistake. The beauty here is the raw courage to … Continue reading →

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Wild Thing by Sue Pridaux (Faber)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by drewsmith28

“Shortly after his first birthday, Paul Gaugin was bundled aboard a ship called The Albert, to sail some 12,000 miles from the French port of Le Havre to Peru.” The Peru link above is not insignificant. This book was sparked … Continue reading →

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A Life in Fifty Books by Anthony Cheetham (Head of Zeus)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by drewsmith28

I am not inclined usually to fall for this kind of congratulatory memoir. But this is Anthony Cheetham, publisher extraordinaire. He has brought many books to market down the years from Frank Herbet’s Dune to Michael Connelly’s Bosch detective series. … Continue reading →

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Regenesis by George Monbiot (Allen Lane)

Posted on April 6, 2023 by drewsmith28

“It’s a wonderful place for an orchard, but a terrible place for growing fruit.” LIKE all good horror stories we start out slowly, the John Carpenter cruise around the suburban neighbourhood, albeit in this case we are digging in George’s … Continue reading →

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English Food by Diane Purkiss (William Collins)

Posted on March 22, 2023 by drewsmith28

“If historians and readers think they know exactly when food culture in England was stable and not subject to the fickle whims of fashion, they tend to finger breakfast as the changeless moment.” FROM the opening paragraph, above, Diane Purkiss … Continue reading →

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Treacle Walker by Alan Garner (Fourth Estate)

Posted on August 17, 2022 by drewsmith28

“Ragbone! Ragbone! Any rags! Pots for rags.” THERE is a fair amount of subtext here, which you might, or might not, need. A little Latin may help. Alan Garner’s first work was published in 1963. He has been admired and … Continue reading →

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We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (Head of Zeus)

Posted on August 8, 2022 by drewsmith28

“My parents’ wedding photograph always reminds me of a frontier town in an old western.” FOR anyone with a passing curiosity as to the unfolding events in Ireland over the last 60 years, this will be a rewarding, insightful, enjoyable … Continue reading →

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The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa (Pan Macmillan)

Posted on August 8, 2022 by drewsmith28

“First things first. Granpa’s gone.” THERE is a fair amount of readerly, philosophy here, virtually a fairy story. Schoolboy inherits bookshop from grandfather. Meets talking cat. On a mission. Drops out of school to chagrin of down to earth class … Continue reading →

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The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly (Orion)

Posted on August 8, 2022 by drewsmith28

“Bosch didn’t mind the wait. The view was spectacular.” THERE is quite a large canon of Michael Connelly books these days, thirty one in all, he was first published in 1992 and this one came out in 2016.  I picked … Continue reading →

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