Well, I’ve seen snowdrops and I’ve seen a dandelion. It’s a start, I suppose. January’s a tough month for those of us who prefer light and warmth. It’s an annual strug…

Well, I've seen snowdrops and I've seen a dandelion. It's a start, I suppose. January's a tough month for those of us who prefer light and warmth. It's an annual struggle to get through the dark days without getting too down. The fact that the evenings are getting lighter all the time now is a bit of a boost and, the spring flowers, though not exactly in abundance yet, are essential.

3/5: This is a difficult one to review. The writing is strong, powerful, and the subject matter almost unbearable to read. Incredibly well documented with candour and honesty. And then you are halfway...

3/5: Easy read and very engaging but nothing to rave about. It was hard to sympathise with the couple at first and, as the story progressed, that didn't get any easier. Some surprises on the way but f...

4/5: Definitely a 'feel good' novel but it has plenty of serious, adult content to keep you engaged. There are surprises all the way through and none are obvious. It delivers a satisfying end which, b...

4/5: This would have been an easy five stars if it wasn't for the ending; or even the last twenty five or so pages. This had me laughing out loud and not wanting to stop reading for almost its entire ...

4/5: I picked this up because the summer of '76 is so vivid and yet it only really features in the first part. It's still hot as hell everywhere but it didn't need to be. Still, the story is great eve...

As the photo up at the top there suggests, we ran away to warmer climes just before Christmas. We used to wait until the end of February before we snapped and needed immediate respite from the cold…

As the photo up at the top there suggests, we ran away to warmer climes just before Christmas. We used to wait until the end of February before we snapped and needed immediate respite from the cold, dark days but now our patience has worn thin and it has to be December. We will, of course, also go in February.

4/5: An excellent addition to the 'How to Write Fiction' catalogue. There are thousands of them but this and Stephen King's 'On Writing' are a hell of a lot better than any others that I've read. I wa...

Anxiety and the Class System. Sounds like the most boring essay you were ever asked to write, doesn’t it? Just needs the word ‘discuss’ sticking at the end. The other day, I was d…

Anxiety and the Class System. Sounds like the most boring essay you were ever asked to write, doesn't it? Just needs the word 'discuss' sticking at the end. The other day, I was driving home from somewhere or other and, in a moment of weakness, I turned on the radio. 'A moment of weakness' because my radio is tuned to Radio Four (nothing else worth listening to as I don't have digital in my old jalopy) and, after years of it droning on in the background through every journey I made,  it gradually became apparent that a constant stream of twenty-four-hour rolling news was having a serious and deleterious effect on my anxiety.

5/5: Hilariously bonkers, as you would expect, but also a completely authentic crime-thriller. It even has a twist that I didn't see coming. This could hold its own with any of the other stuff out the...

5/5: I don't really understand the negative reviews that have been posted for this. I think it's an excellent novel, intelligently written. It's not an easy read, so that might be what is putting the ...

Last month’s blog was a bit of a downer in more than one respect: not only did it concentrate mostly on negative aspects of our society, but it also had a few people asking if I was okay. I know wh…

3/5: The first three quarters of this were pretty good. Excellent even, but then something changed and I couldn't put my finger on it. It seemed to lose pace (even though all hell was breaking loose) ...

5/5: There isn't a bad story in here and there are two exceptional ones: Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream and Rattlesnakes. One of the best things about King's writing, for me, is that I always want to savo...

5/5: Extraordinary! I had to read the first part about six times to get my head around it and worried that I was embarking on some existential nightmare. But it settled down and I realised what was go...

1/5: I really don't think Mo Hayder wrote very much of this. Her hand appears occasionally, very occasionally. Most of the book simply isn't her and the ending is so poor it reads like the worst pulp ...

We now seem  to have a country that’s fifty percent vexillomanic. Yeah, I know, showing off. That’s a posh word for flag obsession. There have always been a group of people who have fit…

We now seem  to have a country that's fifty percent vexillomanic. Yeah, I know, showing off. That's a posh word for flag obsession. There have always been a group of people who have fitted into this category but it has recently been encouraged by certain politicians in order to create tension and division. We've seen it in the past with football shirts and scarves, poppies and badges and now it's flags.

3/5: I've a few problems with this. Beautiful writing and the characterisation is pretty exceptional. Learning about Muranese glassmaking was a treat and the history of Venice and Murano was fascinati...

2/5: Dull... Although I enjoyed the gamble and vodka shots, the juggling and the geese. The end was okay and the writing was superb throughout.

5/5: Stunning. I think Matt has equaled How to Stop Time with this one. Strangely, there are a lot of bad reviews, claiming that it is boring or badly written. I have no idea how they came to that con...