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"Tom Brown's Schooldays" by Thomas Hughes

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 2d

@creativewritinguk.bsky.social Pencils sharpened and tucked into top pocket of new blazer. Looking forward to freshers' week! (Is that a mixed metaphor?)

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 3d

“On the Saturday Thompson died, in the bright afternoon, while the cricket-match was going on as usual on the big-side ground.”
bit.ly/4nBkUEd

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The classic bildungsroman of the English public school, written to adulate Dr Thomas Arnold, the famous reforming headteacher of Rugby Sch...

"Tom Brown's Schooldays" by Thomas Hughes

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 4d

Just completed Tom Brown's Schooldays (in some ways frighteningly like my own, even with a gap of 130 years).

My review: bit.ly/4nBkUEd

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The classic bildungsroman of the English public school, written to adulate Dr Thomas Arnold, the famous reforming headteacher of Rugby Sch...

"Rabbit is Rich" by John Updike

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 6d

I completed U for Updike, John (Rabbit is Rich) in my 2025 A-Z of novelists challenge. Next up will be a book by Jules Verne.

My review of R is R: bit.ly/42oYcqt

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The third novel in the Rabbit tetralogy. Awarded the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It's written using the interior monologue of Harry...

This blog has lots of book reviews. I read biography, history books and fiction; I sometimes read other non-fiction book genres too.

3

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 9d

Yesterday my book review blog passed 1 million views!!

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Dave's Book Blog

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"Peter of Savoy: The Little Charlemagne" by John Marshall

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 9d

I've just finished the fascinating but flawed biography of Peter of Savoy, the man who built the Savoy Palace on the Strand and served King Henry III.

My review: bit.ly/482jnSN

Pevensey Castle: Barbara van Cleve, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons A biography of the ...

"The towers of Trebizond" by Rose Macauley

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 13d

Patriotism:
"I went on musing about why it was thought better and higher to love one's country than one's county, or town, or village, or house. Perhaps because it was larger. But then it would be still better to love one's continent, and best of all to love one's planet."
bit.ly/2atFrpw

What a strange and delightful book, the winner of the James Tait Black memorial prize in 1956. It is a novel though I thought it was a tr...

"Another England" by Caroline Lucas

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 13d

My review of 'Another Country' by Caroline Lucas:

bit.ly/42c1NrI

From 2010 until 2024, Caroline Lucas was Britain's first and only Green MP (others were elected in 2024, when she stood down). This book is ...

"To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 15d

I've reread 'To The Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf and had a great discussion about it with my reading group so I've updated my review: bit.ly/1KW3P3M

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I was supposed to read this while I was in the sixth form at school as part of a Twentieth Century Literature enrichment course (I took Scie...

"Never Laura" by Ewgeniya Lyras

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 16d

Just finished 'Never Laura' by Evgeniya Lyras, a boldly original work of speculative fiction.

My full review: bit.ly/46kof4x

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An extraordinarily creative and original cyberpunk novel set in a dystopian world of artificial intelligence, human enhancement and hallucin...

"On Beauty" by Zadie Smith

2 2 5

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 20d

Wow! Zadie Smiths 'On Beauty' might have started as 'Howard's End' rewritten but it ended up as utterly wonderful in its own right.

My review: bit.ly/4ps373A

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One may as well begin by acknowledging that although the plot is based on Howard's End by E M Forster, Zadie Smith has written a novel that ...

"Autobiography of Red" by Anne Carson

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 28d

I've just finished 'Autobiography of Red' by Anne Carson, an 'epic poem' rewriting the myth of the tenth labour of Hercules. As usual with modern retellings of myth, the roles of hero and monster are reversed.

My full review: bit.ly/4md5nsW

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This is described as a modern epic poem although I could see little that was distinctively poetic about it apart from the fact that it is w...

"A View of the Harbour" by Elizabeth Taylor

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 29d

“There is no need to look smug and knowing - like the Mona Lisa - or - or a lavatory-attendant.”
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
My review: bit.ly/4gkO7k0

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A novel dissecting the relationships between the members of a community, a stiff-upper-lip English version of Trindadian Miguel Street by...

"A View of the Harbour" by Elizabeth Taylor

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · 29d

Here is my review of T for Taylor, Elizabeth 'A View of the Harbour' in my 2025 A-Z of novelists challenge.

bit.ly/4gkO7k0

Next up is U for Updike, John 'Rabbit is Rich'

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A novel dissecting the relationships between the members of a community, a stiff-upper-lip English version of Trindadian Miguel Street by...

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Sep 8

Ok

"Still Lives" by Reshma Ruia

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Sep 3

“Anybody can be happy - there is no skill in that. what is important is to become a someone.”

Still Lives by Reshma Ruia

My review: bit.ly/46gy8Qq

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Madame Bovary in Manchester. Emma Bovary becomes PK Malik, an Indian businessman in Manchester, whose business is struggling. Seeking an es...

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Sep 2

I read this many years ago: a brilliant book and a fantastic TV series.

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Sep 2

One of a number of interesting new novels published by @renardpress.com

"Still Lives" by Reshma Ruia

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Sep 2

Madame Bovary in Manchester?

I've just finished 'Still Lives' by Reshma Ruia. It's refreshing to read a book so rooted in everyday life.

My review: bit.ly/46gy8Qq

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Madame Bovary in Manchester. Emma Bovary becomes PK Malik, an Indian businessman in Manchester, whose business is struggling. Seeking an es...

"A Brief History of Seven Killings" by Marlon James

1 1 1

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Aug 31

I've just finished the epic winner of the 2015 Booker: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James. It isn't brief and there are many more than 7 murders.

My full review: bit.ly/4p19URC

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Winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize . It's not brief. And there are far more than seven killings. In fact the seven killings referred to in ...

1 1

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Aug 29

So looking forward to this series based on the wonderful Ronan Hession book. My review: bit.ly/3YZ1jmw

"The Spire" by William Golding

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Aug 28

Recently finished The Spire by William Golding. Superbly gappy stream of consciousness in a heavily symbolic novel. Wow.

My full review: bit.ly/3JCfNVc

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The picture shows a wooden beam in Lincoln Cathedral, placed there to stop the building falling down.

A Dean in the Middle Ages is inspired by a vision to add a spire to his cathedral. Opposition includes the master builder he hires to supe...

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Aug 20

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads was a superb production. It runs until Saturday. If you're in Eastbourne, see it! My full review:

daja57.blogspot.com/2025/08/talk...

Dave Appleby @daja57.bsky.social · Aug 20

That sounds about right.

Philip Clive Minty @philipcliveminty.com · Aug 20

Enjoyed your review. The book sounds interestingly boring, or boringly interesting.