Book Review – Let Me Be Frank With You – Richard Ford This is fourth book in what was originally a completed trilogy by Ford – three iconic and truly…
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Ah, where to start on this entangled, undisciplined, dissonant, amazing carnivore of a book? A ragged, shredded, broken-toothed affair, a story of Australia related by a melange of unpredictable and…
Book review – & Sons by David Gilbert The first thing that announces this book is the cover, itself almost worth the price. It is an utterly arresting shot of…
I just attended the Open Book Festival 2013 in a gently bracing Cape Town spring. This is one of South Africa’s 4 major literary festivals, the others being Franschoek, and…
Short Stories I ask a friend for podcast recommendations to assuage the thudding boredom of stationary bike sessions, and the short attention spans of teenagers on long trips, who while…
The Damn List Here we go again – summer holidays, the prospect of a couple of weeks of uninterrupted slothfulness. Where you reap the rewards that you imagine you deserve …
Turning 60 The last time I did the big birthday speech was 10 years ago. I chose the theme of taking stock then, what I had achieved, and what I…
I spent decades reading fiction before I sat down to write my first novel. One of the things that had always struck me as magical, and even inimitable, was the…
Boston – The stuff of fiction This morning TV news was awash with braying Boston college students mugging for the camera ‘Boston, Boston, Boston’ to news of the capture of…