David Garnett, The Sailor’s Return

I have prejudices against David Garnett. Being a Bloomsbury hanger-on loses him points, as does his treatment of Angelica Grant, the girl he announced he would marry after he was introduced to her when she was in her cradle. I was also suspicious of his later friendship with T H White, a lonely and tortured … Continue reading David Garnett, The Sailor’s Return →

Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream

This post was originally a podcast script, now (2022) tidied up a little since it seems to be one of the most-read posts on this site. Its subject is Ernest Hemingway's novel Islands in the Stream. He is a giant of American literature, and of masculine writing. He wrote men’s books about manly subjects: war, … Continue reading Ernest Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream →

Glyn Maxwell Drinks With Dead Poets

Warning: part-way through this novel about the author teaching poetry and drinking with Keats and Walt Whitman, I realised that it’s a sequel, of sorts. I’ve now got a copy of it, Maxwell’s On Poetry, but I haven’t read it yet. So I might have missed something in this review. Bear with me. Glyn … Continue reading Glyn Maxwell Drinks With Dead Poets →

Coroner’s Pidgin

Beginning my reposting of my scripts from Why I Really Like This Book, this is a lucky dip from the vaults: Coroner’s Pidgin by Margery Allingham. It was the last classic detective fiction novel of the Five Great Reads miniseries. I’ve been reading some great detective novels from the 1930s and 1940s, because this is my favourite kind of … Continue reading Coroner’s Pidgin →