reviewed by Frances Churchward. This work of non fiction is written by Sophie Walker, the feminist activist and founder of the Women’s Equality Party. Walker considers that activism is needed today perhaps more than ever, in these times of populism and austerity. Her five rules, which set out how...
Books
Book review: Notes from an Apocalypse, by Mark O’Connell
Reviewed by Frances Churchward. Notes from an Apocalypse is a work of non-fiction from prize-winning author Mark O’Connell. It begins with O’Connell reflecting on the depression that he suffered and which had, as it root cause, his consuming apprehension of imminent catastrophe largely relating to climate change. After reading...
Book review: Watching From the Dark by Gytha Lodge
reviewed by Chris Richards. I like this book; I think if you like police procedurals, whodunnits and murder mysteries of the digestible, moreish ilk then you’ll like it too. It opens with a chilly, neurotic prologue. It reads as a fly on the wall account of the murder report....
Book review: Come Again by Robert Webb
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...
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...