Category Archives: Biography

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 →

Posted in 101greatreads, Biography, fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Biography | Tagged | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Biography | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Biography | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (Vintage)

Posted on June 10, 2022 by drewsmith28

“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma“. THE opening paragraphs are an exemplar set up for any work of fiction/faction/reportage. The film version is slated for 2023 … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by David Hockney with Martin Gayford (Thames and Hudson)

Posted on April 22, 2022 by drewsmith28

“I have known David Hockney for a quarter of a century now…” WHEN you look at the fabulous new paintings from David Hockney in a Normandy farmhouse, there is often a tiny detail – a ladder, a bird, a van, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Silverview by John Le Carre (Penguin/Viking)

Posted on March 23, 2022 by drewsmith28

“At ten o’clock of a rainswept morning in London’s West End, a young woman in a baggy anorak, a wooden scarf pulled up around her head, strode resolutely into the storm that was roaring down South Audley street”. THE imagery … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography | Leave a comment

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Saraband)

Posted on November 12, 2021 by drewsmith28

“Before the end of 2019, I received an email from a Mr Martin Grey of Clacton-on-Sea.” Graeme Macrae Burnet’s published books split into two – on the one hand we have the quasi French detecto entertainments of M. Gorski, here … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Sleeping Car Murders by Sebastien Japrisot (Gallic)

Posted on April 16, 2021 by drewsmith28

IN translation we get a cottage garden style of English not the sprawling, homogenizing white sauce of the ruined mansions of quasi English language. The cathedral once constructed by Dickens is reduced to a semi in suburbia, a bungalow on … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography | Leave a comment

Bleak House by Charles Dickens, part three (Penguin)

Posted on April 12, 2021 by drewsmith28

BY page 593 this gargantuan torture wheel of a plot is starting to turn.  The perimeter is on the horizon. We have a literary variation on a Swiss watch with all the little interlocking wheels starting to spin. Beyond the … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography | 1 Comment