The first review of Displacement has just been published by Quadrapheme, written by the inestimable Barney Campbell. http://www.quadrapheme.com/fiction-review-displacement/ My thanks to Barney Campbell for his insight and generosity, both in his review and in this interview, which appeared the previous day. http://www.quadrapheme.com/displacement-21st-century-alienation/
Post Category → Uncategorized
Star Wars, star wares – review of How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor
Star Wars, star wares How Star Wars Conquered the Universe Chris Taylor, London: Head of Zeus, 2015 In 1977, like millions of other prepubescents, I trooped excitedly along to a cinema to see the first instalment of Star Wars. I was twelve, anxious about acne, fond of sci-fi comics, and sick with ruthless fantasies about remaking… Continue reading
The world-island of England – review of The Island by Stephen Walter
THE WORLD-ISLAND OF ENGLAND The Island: London Mapped Stephen Walter, foreword by Peter Barber, London: Prestel, 2015, hb., 143 pps., £15.30 It is a cliché to say London is unlike the rest of England. It is original to take this trite conceit one stage further, and depict the Great Wen as an actual island, set… Continue reading
New light on the magical realist – review of Dimitris Yeros Photographing Gabriel Garcia Marquez
NEW LIGHTS ON THE MAGICAL REALIST Dimitris Yeros photographing Gabriel García Márquez Dimitris Yeros, foreword by Edward Lucie-Smith, Bielefeld: Kerber, 2015, 136pps., 36 Euros, www.yeros.com Dimitris Yeros is a justly celebrated photographer and artist based in Athens. Edward Lucie-Smith is a highly-regarded poet and the author of authoritative art histories. And Gabriel García Márquez… Continue reading
Determinism by sea-area – review of The Edge of the World by Michael Pye
DETERMINISM BY SEA-AREA The Edge of the World – How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are Michael Pye, London: Viking, 2015, hb., 394 pps., £25 I see the North Sea every day, and am used to its humours. In summer, I wade its frisping margins or swim surrounded by seals and terns. In the… Continue reading
Highway maintenance – review of The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor
HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mouth Athos Patrick Leigh Fermor, London: John Murray, 162pp, hb In 2011, Patrick Leigh Fermor became Patrick Leigh Former, and hundreds of thousands of devotees became doubly bereft. The first loss was the man himself, at 96 an antique in his own right, one of… Continue reading
The glossarian as moralist – review of Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
THE GLOSSARIAN AS MORALIST Landmarks, Robert Macfarlane, London: Hamish Hamilton, 2015, 387pps, hb, £20 Robert Macfarlane is one of the most lionized of contemporary British writers, somehow combining a Cambridge career with producing a celebrated sequence of unusually literate explorations of landscape. First was 2003’s Mountains of the Mind, about Occidental attitudes towards high places… Continue reading
Too quiet flows the Don
TOO QUIET FLOWS THE DON The stone head from the Iron Age glowers out of its glass case as if outraged by the indignity of imprisonment, its relegation from totem to tourist attraction. Not that there are ever many tourists in Doncaster Museum, especially on a unseasonably warm day when the sun-punished town seems full… Continue reading
Early promise – review of Morning Crafts by Tito Perdue
EARLY PROMISE Morning Crafts, Tito Perdue, Arktos, London, 2012, 163 pp Way back in prehistory – 1991, or thereabouts – a promising Alabaman author started to register on readers’ radars, thanks to lambent reviews from Northern litterateurs surprised to discover that there was at least one Southron who could not only write, but write as… Continue reading
Rise of the Dominatrix – review of Margaret Thatcher: Not for Turning by Charles Moore
RISE OF THE DOMINATRIX Margaret Thatcher: Not for Turning Charles Moore, London: Allen Lane, 2013, 859pp When Margaret Thatcher died last April, the obsequies were at times almost drowned by vitriolic voices celebrating her demise. There were howls of joy from old enemies, street parties, and a puerile campaign to make the Wizard of Oz… Continue reading