Reviews
Inside Reviews
Alasdair Gray: A secretary's biography, by Rodge Glass
Sunday, 14 December 2008
The elusive writer is equal parts dauntless artist and absent-minded professor, his Boswell tells us
Children's Picture Books: We wish you a hairy Christmas
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Nicola Smyth meets terrible trolls, a scatty frog and a wonderfully hirsute hero in the latest picture books for children
Children's Fiction: Boys' own adventures
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Our young reviewers round up the best of the year's fiction for their age range
The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease, ed Sarah Eyre and Ra Page (Rated 4/ 5 )
Sunday, 14 December 2008
No place like home
The Crafty Cockney, by Eric Bristow
Sunday, 14 December 2008
A petty thief and violent gang member in his youth, Eric Bristow went about his north London business with a claw hammer down his trousers. He soon realised his future lay in his precocious ability with the tools of his other trade, darts. In the early 1980s he reigned supreme, winning five world titles. His lippy arrogance made him a player the crowd loved to hate, and his autobiography shows it's not hard to see why.
Conjugal Rites, By Paul Magrs
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Frankenstein reclaims his bride in this tender horror
Football books: 1966 and all that
Sunday, 14 December 2008
John Tague finds that the best of this year's football books tackle past glories
The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles, By Roy Jacobsen, trs Don Bartlett & Don Shaw (Rated 3/ 5 )
Sunday, 14 December 2008
This intimate novel by one of Norway's leading writers begins on 7 December 1939, when Russian troops invade the small Finnish town of Suomussalmi and find it evacuated but for one man: Timo the woodcutter, who finds he has a bond to the place that he cannot sever. As the distant drone of engines approaches, he vows that he will never go anywhere else. He watches the town go up in black smoke: homes, school, the church where he was christened.
At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist, by Anne Fadiman (Rated 4/ 5 )
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Charles Lamb dreamt up his Essays under the influence of brandy and tobacco; under the influence of tea William Hazlitt dashed off Table-Talk; and it is under the influence of both the brain and heart that the "familiar essay" is written, as opposed to the critical essay (more brain) or the personal essay (more heart). Many writers have mourned the imminent death of the "familiar essay", but in this collection, Anne Fadiman testifies to its endurance .
The Choice of Hercules, by A C Grayling (Rated 4/ 5 )
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Hercules was watching over his cattle when a woman in a white robe approached him from one side and a woman with plunging decolletage from the other; the former offering him struggle and labour rewarded by immortal fame, the latter offering sex, entertainment and ease. The choice of Hercules is between Duty and Pleasure, the Good Life or the good life.
Where Shall We Go For Dinner?: A food romance, By Tamasin Day-Lewis (Rated 3/ 5 )
Sunday, 14 December 2008
"I come from a long line of greedy women," admits Tamasin Day-Lewis. An hour after the death of her father, Cecil Day-Lewis, with whom she was staying in the country home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, 18-year-old Tamasin and "Jane" were unsure what to do. Is thinking about being hungry obscene, she wondered? Afflicted by a "sudden storm of hunger", they devoured doughnuts.
The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba, By Dervla Murphy
Friday, 12 December 2008
The foreign image of Cuba remains heavily dominated by male fantasies involving paradise beaches, uninhibited dancing and the proverbially stunning mulatta.
Novel 11, Book 18, By Dag Solstad, trans Sverre Lyngstad
Friday, 12 December 2008
"Existence has never answered my questions," Bjørn Hansen tells his friend, Dr Schiøtz. "Just imagine, to live an entire life, my own life at that, without having found the path to where my deepest needs can be seen and heard!"
Wishful Drinking, By Carrie Fisher
Friday, 12 December 2008
For those who had been wondering why there has not been a human version of Me Cheeta, this year's surprise best-selling autobiography by a celebrity chimpanzee: wait no longer; this is it.
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, Edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey
Friday, 12 December 2008
In the depths of the last great depression Washington came to the assistance of struggling authors, funding the Federal Writers Project. Its greatest legacy was the 500-page-a-volume, 50 volumes, state by state, WPA guide to America. Almost 80 years later and here we are again. A new democratic President faces a global economic meltdown and intractable security problems. This time around we have a smaller, leaner literary response to this American moment; just one volume, a private sector publisher and 50 writers on the 50 states. But it is a bold and ambitious response by editors Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey.
Black Orchids, By Gillian Slovo
Friday, 12 December 2008
Opening in colonial Ceylon in 1946 and ending in 1970s Sri Lanka, Black Orchids is a parable of contagious racism.
Tony Hancock, By John Fisher
Friday, 12 December 2008
If Tony Hancock hadn't killed himself in 1968, what would he be doing today? Would he still be on peak-time television, like his variety contemporary, Bruce Forsyth? Or would he be enjoying a well-earned rest, like his old pal Eric Sykes?
The Numerati, By Stephen Baker
Friday, 12 December 2008
Imagine a future in which our bosses work to get the best out of us, where retailers regularly bombard us with targeted advertising, where pollsters try to predict our voting habits and dating agencies our romantic preferences. Sounds rather like now, doesn't it?
The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie, By Malu Halasa & Rana Salam
Friday, 12 December 2008
A peek into a nation's underwear drawers can be very telling. Rustling around the chests in the court of Catherine de Medici, a historian could have deduced that the smaller the waist of a woman's iron corset, the greater the status of its owner.
Conan Doyle, By Andrew Lycett
Friday, 12 December 2008
Son of a talented, though alcoholic, artist and nephew to Richard Doyle, the great Punch cartoonist, Conan Doyle hid his considerable literary energy behind the bluff exterior of a medical man.
The Old Child & The Book of Words, By Jenny Erpenbeck
Friday, 12 December 2008
Don't try to learn too much about the origins of these two spare and spooky novellas before you submit to their uncanny mood.
Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers, By Georgina O'Hara Callan and Cat Glover
Friday, 12 December 2008
The 1,200 entries are careful not to tread on Choo-clad fashion toes.
The Mechanics' Institute Review Issue 5, Edited by Pippa Griffin et al, Edited by William Rod-armor and Anna Livia
Friday, 12 December 2008
Birkbeck College's 2008 anthology blends stories by students of the college's writing MA with those of adepts Ali Smith, Toby Litt and Sarah Salway.
Smoot's EarBy Robert Tavernor
Friday, 12 December 2008
In a 1958 jape, MIT students used 5ft 7in Oliver R. Smoot to measure Harvard Bridge.
The Democrats: A Critical History, By Lance Selfa
Friday, 12 December 2008
This slashing attack on the Democrats by an American socialist has a familiar ring on this side of the Atlantic.
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