I am closed to print editions of books to review for the time being. Read on for more information why. At some point after I started writing for the Guardian books blog, people started sending me books. When I started writing my own column, more people started sending me books. A couple of years on, [...]
Many people say writing can’t be taught. But it can certainly be learnt. (I actually think it can be taught as well, or I would not teach it.) When we’re young and full of beans we like to think we know it all. It’s hard to admit to yourself you don’t how to do something. [...]
At any given moment on the inter-webs there are probably dozens of irate Sci-Fi / Fantasy fans getting agitated about those damn literary authors coming and writing genre, while genre writers themselves miss out on the credit they deserve. Which is about as silly as shouting at someone for stealing your flowers when they have [...]
This potent rite-of-passage tale offers readers some useful pointers on keeping the heart warm in allegorically wintry times. The novel that raised Haruki Murakami to literary superstardom ranges across the seasons, but the heart of its meaning is found in winter. When 30-something Toru Watanabe hears a fragment of the titular Beatles track after a long airplane [...]
I’ve been reviewing books for a few years now. I wrote occasional reviews right from the outset of this blog, and then not long afterwards began reviewing from the (much missed) The Fix. And my regular articles for The Guardian often hide a few book reviews. So I’ve been enjoying a brief exchange of views [...]
Lauren Westwood is graduate of Loughborough University’s MA in Creative Writing and was a project intern for the Writing Industries Conference. She is a young writer with a passion for SF and Fantasy, but had never heard of steampunk until accepting my challenge to review the Steampunk Reloaded anthology. Here she gives a fascinating insight [...]
Sarah Crown over at The Guardian book blog today asks readers for their top books of the noughties. Unsurprisingly my picks are quite speculative in nature, and there are so many that I eventually gave up trying to list them all. It was also complicated by the fact that many of my favourite books read [...]
Recently I’ve discovered the non-fiction author Karen Armstrong, via her short book A Brief History of Myth. I found the book fascinating and brilliantly well written. Armstrong is currently in the news for her book The Case for God, which has been vying for position in the bestseller lists with Richard Dawkins The God Delusion [...]
On my last trip to San Francisco I discovered In’n’Out burgers. If you don’t live in California, In’n’Out might need some explanation. Imagine the greasiest possible burger, accompanied with the worlds most artificial cheese, wrapped in a bun that almost resembles bread and chips that no one believes are even related to a potato. And [...]
I was nicely surprised to wake up this morning to find a wonderful translation of Im Abendrot in my inbox. I have posted before about this poem by Joseph von Eichendorff, which I discovered via the music of Richard Strauss. Teh generous spirited Richard Gardner found my ear;y post and has furnished me with a [...]
