reviewed by Frances Churchward. The title of this book is the title of a painting by John Singer Sargent, painted in 1881, of Samuel Pozzi. This is a non-fiction history book set during the time of “La Belle Epoque” and draws a very colourful, and not necessarily flattering, picture...
Book review: The Wonder Girls by J M Carr
reviewed by Georgina Lippiett. The Wonder Girls is a fast-paced, full-hearted, total romp of an adventure. The story takes place in England in 1936 and is set against a backdrop of the rise of fascist ideals. The Blackshirts are marching the streets, unrest is in the air and if...
Clearing the air in Southampton
by Alex Thurley-Ratcliff. There’s an internet meme going around which runs, “I grew up during a time when everyone went outside to play in the fields, built dens and climbed trees, we got dirty, bathed on Sunday” and it rambles on about drinking tap water, whittling conkers and being...
Congratulations Shirley Library!
by Chris Richards. Shirley Library, Southampton are Winners of the Best Library Display of the Booker Prize Short List 2019. “The hardest thing to source were the rubber ducks!” says Fran Simonis, who along with colleague Cath Brear of Shirley Library, Southampton, set up the winning display. The competition...
Book review: We Are The Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, Jonathan Safran Foer
reviewed by Dan O’Farrell. All sensible people care about climate change. We are all worried about it. But are we really worried? Do we actually believe it? This is the central question around which Jonathan Safran Foer’s new non-fiction book revolves. Using examples and anecdotes from both world history...
Book review: In The House In The Dark Of The Woods by Laird Hunt
reviewed by Sarah Groszewski. A story worthy of Halloween, the book is an unusual and atmospheric, twisted fairy-tale for adults with a liking for eerie horror and fantasy. Laird Hunt’s seventh novel is a contemporary fairy-tale that follows a young Puritan woman’s journey as she sets off into a...
Review: Some Like It Hip Hop, Mayflower Theatre
reviewed by Chris Richards. Some Like It Hip Hop, some like it not. And despite everything I thought I knew about Hip Hop, I liked it a lot. Incredible dancers, sensational singers and an extremely cool narrator come together to describe the story with a sequence of cascading emotions....