I Read and I Review
In 21 October 1966, a coal slag heap fell on top of Pantglas Junior School and neighbouring houses in the small mining village of Aberfan in South Wales, killing 116 children and 28 adults. This is fact. I remember it happening. I can see now the headline in our local paper, lying on a chair... Continue Reading →
Yes, the high mountains of Portugal do exist, in the north east of the country, but, as the author writes, they are not very high at all. A more exact description of them would be a 'plateau', of scrubland and moor. The book The High Mountains of Portugal falls into three parts, with three different... Continue Reading →
'A tale of escape, love and loss' reads the strapline... against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War which followed. You know I have a thing for anything east European? Well, 'Beyond the Samovar' did not disappoint. Livvy and Peter are an English couple, with a baby (George), living in Baku... Continue Reading →
A thoroughly enjoyable collection of short stories. I couldn't put it down. That's what they all say, isn't it, but, really and truly, I was reading after midnight two nights running. Some of the stories were flash and others some much longer. All carried a punch, many also with a twist. Scenarios ranged from a... Continue Reading →
Celtic Cross. I cannot display cover art for this book because I don't have permission to do so. I read this book as part of my research into a flash piece on medieval monks following the Celtic tradition. Celtic Christianity has always fascinated me and you, Dear Reader, will recall that a few weeks ago... Continue Reading →
Cuthbert of Farne, A novel of Northumbria’s warrior saint, is probably my best read of 2022 so far. I would love to show you the cover art but I cannot do so without infringing copyright, so to the left is a painting of the man himself. I have long been fascinated by Celtic saints. I... Continue Reading →
What are you supposed to do? You're running a murder mystery weekend at your hotel and the actor playing the victim calls in sick… but there's this rather good-looking man is standing at the end of your checking-in queue, begging for a room. Obvious, really. He can have a room if he's prepared to be... Continue Reading →
If only... Characters get themselves into sticky situations and the reader would normally expect a suitably uncomfortable ending - but not here. A suicidal seaman finds a book by his lost love and... (The Bench). A wheelchair-bound young woman, terrified to leave her own flat, plucks up courage to negotiate lifts and pavements to answer... Continue Reading →
This book took me a long time to read, about two months, although I read others in between. From that, you can deduce that it didn't set me on fire - and certainly didn't scare me - but, like Magnus Magnussen, I started so I finished. M R James's Ghost Stories are regarded as a... Continue Reading →
An anthology edited by Debz Hobbs-Wyatt and Gill James. This work contains 76 pieces, mostly very short but some longer, featuring the first three months of the Covid Pandemic, some short stories, some flash, some poetry and others where the author just described how he/she was feeling and what he/she was experiencing during March, April,... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader 