reviewed by Frances Churchward. Robert Webb will be familiar to many as one half of Mitchell and Webb and, perhaps even more so, as Jeremy in PeepShow. Come Again is his first novel. His previous book, How Not To Be A Boy, Webb’s first foray into book writing, was...
Books
Book review: The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka
reviewed by Frances Churchward. This is Amaka’s first novel and is somewhat unusual because it is narrated by the spirit of a slave woman, taken from Africa, who managed to escape from the plantation, where she had been a slave over two hundred years ago and who has been...
Book review: A-Z of Southampton: People-Places-History, Martin Brisland
by Sarah Groszewski. Martin Brisland is a highly experienced, qualified local tour guide and founder of See Southampton, so it stands to reason that his latest book, A-Z of Southampton Places-People-History is full of interesting and little-known facts. There seems to be a booming market for local history and...
Book review: The Man In The Red Coat by Julian Barnes
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: Love by Hanne Orstavik
reviewed by Frances Churchward. This is a very short novel totalling 132 pages and the action takes place during the course of one evening during the winter months in Norway. Jon, who will be nine years old the next day, has been accidently locked out of his house by...
Book review: A short history of falling: everything I observed about love whilst dying by Joe Hammond
reviewed by Frances Churchward. When I first read the blurb inside the cover of this book, I must admit felt somewhat reluctant to read it. The book, amongst other things, charts the author’s progress of motor neurone disease and his experience of living with the disease and moving towards...
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...
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...