Coming up on Vulpes Libris …

Autobiographical works seem to be the flavour of the week this week, because we have three of them, but they’re all very different beasts – from the political memoirs of Christine Todd Whitman – Administrator of the EPA under George W Bush and first female Governor of New Jersey – through Liz Smith’s “slightly batty [...]

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The “C” word…

So, this weekend is Halloween… it’s the traditional unleashing of evil upon the world.  (Not that it isn’t pretty stowed out with it already.)  However, being a Bookseller I have been ruined for traditional festivals since they begin so much in advance that by the time they actually happen, I’m bored to death. Take Christmas [...]

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The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

I should point out immediately that any comments I make about this book are due to my disappointment in its ending. That’s the awful thing about books – a mediocre one can be saved by a perfect ending and a good one utterly ruined by a terrible one. This is one of the latter. Winner [...]

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Thursday Soapbox: Madness & Art

By Mark Buckland, MD of Cargo Publishing. Several months ago, I found myself in a conversation with a journalist at a networking event. I’d had a few drinks and was in my usual passionate mode; harping on about the excitement and revolution that seems to surround publishing right now. I tried to make (what I [...]

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Adapting Sex for the Stage by Jane Prowse

“By the time I’m 67 – next March – I want to have had a lot of sex with a man I like.  If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me…” One of my recent writing commissions has been to adapt Jane Juska’s best selling autobiography  “A Round-Heeled Woman” for the stage.  The [...]

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The Book of Happy Endings by Elise Valmorbida: the problem of truth

This is a collection of life-affirming stories about couples who met and fell in love. So you know the endings already. Or do you? There is nothing predictable here. The storytelling is inspired, at once poetic and real. The style is deceptively simple and the themes are international. Love is old and young. Love breaks [...]

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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

I was introduced to this story in English literature class while in my early teens and recall being shocked by it. Frightened, even. It’s not the fright of ghost and goblins, but the horror of real-life events. The short story, originally published in the late 1940’s, has a timeless quality. It’s set in a small [...]

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Coming up this week

This week the Foxes are puzzling over endings, orgasms and secrets, as well as looking at some very serious issues, sometimes all at the same time. So it’s going to be a rollercoaster and thought-provoking ride in the week leading up to Halloween. Monday: To get in the mood for Hallowe’en, Jackie looks at Shirley [...]

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Romance with Bite – Guest Article by Samantha Tonge

Shh! Don’t tell anyone I’ve fallen for teen Romance with Bite. Article by Samantha Tonge Unpalatable as it is to declare, I am a woman of a certain age. Okay, middle age. There, I’ve said it. You know it’s arrived when you develop large brown spots that are too big to call freckles and you [...]

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Mr Rosenblum’s List by Natasha Solomons – a light soufflé of a novel but it won’t fill you up

Jack Rosenblum is five foot three and a half inches of sheer tenacity. Through study and application he intends to become a Very English Gentleman. Jack is compiling a list: a comprehensive guide to the manners, customs and habits of England. He knows that marmalade must be bought from Fortnum & Mason, he’s memorised every [...]

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