news, views & reviews
Posted in Literary on Apr 26th, 2007
reviewed by Debra Murphy
"The late Isobel English was an exceptionally talented young novelist of the mid-1950s. Every Eye is one of her most successful and sensitively written books, a romantic yet unsentimental story of a young woman’s intricate relationships of family and love, intensely evocative of the period, remarkable in its observations of place […]
Posted in Classics, Comedy/Satire on Apr 16th, 2007
Gallows Humor
One of my favorite stories about Evelyn Waugh finds him at a swank Parisian dinner party. After rudely belittling a helpless French intellectual with his characteristic boorishness, the host asked Evelyn how he could be so mean and still call himself a Catholic. “You have no idea,” Waugh answered, “how much nastier I would […]
Posted in Audiobooks, Fantasy, Historical on Apr 5th, 2007
by Susanna Clarke
reviewed by John Murphy
“Two magicians shall appear in England”
I tend to catch the tail-end of trends, like an enthusiastic gate-crasher at a party long since broken-up. When friends and family suggest—nay, insist—that I must, I absolutely must watch such-and-such a movie, listen to such-and-such a CD, or read such-and-such a book … well, […]