The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

The Jorgmund Pipe is on fire, and Gonzo Lubitsch and his Haulage & Hazmat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company have been employed to deal it.
The Jorgmund Pipe – what it is, who created it, what it transports and why it exists at all – is the whole raison d’être of The Gone-Away World, the debut novel [...]

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Mary Brunton: Self-Control AND Discipline

 If Mary Brunton’s name rings any bells, you are most likely thinking of this quote from Jane Austen:
I am looking over Self Control again, & my opinion is confirmed of its’ being an excellently-meant, elegantly-written Work, without anything of Nature or Probability in it. I declare I do not know whether Laura’s passage down the [...]

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Thursday Soapbox: Clare Sudbery In Praise of Popular Culture

On the soapbox this week is our guest, Clare Sudbery – novelist, storyteller, editorial consultant and blogger extraordinaire – taking a break from her popular blog Boob Pencil, to complain about cultural snobbery.
*Thanks to Chris Seufert on Flickr for this image, here representing the fox of popular culture with the lion of literary fiction [...]

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How to Kill your Husband (and other handy household hints) by Kathy Lette

“All husbands think they’re gods. If only their wives weren’t atheists.”
I wanted to love this novel. Kathy Lette is a brilliant comedian and How to Kill your Husband came highly recommended by a friend. Plus, with a title like this one, how could I possibly not read it? (if only to leave it around to [...]

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Red Love, by Alexandra Kollontai

There are so many myths and half-truths surrounding the name of Alexandra Kollontai that, rather than write a plain old biographical sketch, I’m going to give you a quiz instead. The first commenter to get all the answers right gets a special place in the VL Hall of Fame, which is surely worth more [...]

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Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt by William Nothdurft and Josh Smith

This book was sooo disappointing. It’s always exciting to read of new fossils found in various parts of the world and I looked forward to details of at least one discovery within. But following the thread of events proved as difficult as finding a nest of petrified dinosaur eggs. The book is [...]

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Seven Wonders of the Industrial World by Deborah Cadbury

Hands up everyone who’s ever really liked a television series, bought the TV tie-in book and then, having thumbed through it once, never looked at it again – or worse, found that it added nothing to the series and was in fact just money down the drain.
Yes. Thought so. A not uncommon [...]

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Thursday Soapbox: Too Much of a Good Thing?

 
The Thursday Soapbox, this time by Book Fox, Mary, arguing that there are too many books.
* Thanks to queenodesign on Flickr for the photo of Minnie Atkins’ sculpture of a particularly ferocious looking fox. (Don’t worry, we’re all pussy cats really – you can disagree with us!) Also thanks to Saunderses on Flickr for [...]

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Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster

Let me say first that Rhyll McMaster is an extraordinary writer. Her prose is dazzling, poetic and thought-provoking, and this is literary fiction at its best.
Feather Man is Sooky’s story and it’s set in 1950s Brisbane, moving through to London of the 70s. The book is split into four sections, which correspond with the four [...]

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Sally Hinchcliffe: interviewed by Roger Morris

Sally Hinchcliffe, whose debut novel “Out of a Clear Sky” has just been chosen as Radio Five Live’s Book of the Month, talks to fellow writer, Roger Morris.
Out of a Clear Sky is a gripping and intelligently written psychological thriller, set in the perhaps unusual milieu of bird-watching. It tells the story of Manda, [...]

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