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Al Murray is a highly successful English stand up comedian who created the comic character The Pub Landlord, a bombastic opinionated oaf whose message is ‘England is the best, all foreigners are rubbish’. Of course it is satire, with laughter the best form of criticism. But the real Al Murray was head boy at a leading public school and a…
Murder! Mayhem! Revenge – ! – ending in a glorious absurd climax. A feminist tract taken to its ultimate hilarious finale. Brilliant! This is another of the Storybook ND (New Directions) books, this time written by Rachel Ingalls. This one has 60 pages six lines and two words. It was dropped off in my front porch by the usual invisible delivery man and I…
‘Can you remember any artwork produced in the hospital that stays in your memory. Something so different, something quite unique, that you have never forgotten it?’ Joyce Laing defines ‘art extraordinary’ as ‘extremely rare and possesses that powerful quality which impinges itself on the memory, for nothing quite like it will have been seen before. It is arresting, beautiful and…
Often when I think about poetry for children, I think it’s a bit worthy and well, dull. It's for learning by rote and reciting at school assemblies or for use as a handy ink exercise. Well, these two books definitely challenge these assumptions. Michael Rosen’s A Great Big Cuddle is packed with thirty-five wonderfully fun verses for preschool children and can be found in…
This is a great wee book. I read it between breakfast and lunch one morning – with time left over. It’s a delight. A delicious delight. When I finished it I sat stunned that it was over, and going over and over it in my head. Where it has happily stayed since. Hence this review. It’s published by the American…
While the author was working as Programs Manager at the American Library in Paris she learned about the extraordinarily brave employees who endeavoured to keep the library open during World War II when Paris was under occupation. In 1917, the American Library Association’s Library War Service shipped over two million books donated by libraries and individuals to US soldiers serving…
I had never heard the name Bathia/Bethia until I met somebody with that name in Pittenweem. When I was last on duty in the library, I picked up a book on the New Stock table called The Castilians. As I opened it I saw the main character was called Bethia. I was intrigued so I borrowed it. The story is…
It’s probably a personality defect, but I love elections. There’s nothing quite like a decent dose of electionitis as the image-makers groom their candidates. The spin doctors and the PR people are in overdrive, as the various parties fine tune their policies to ensure maximum appeal. Opinion polls with their proverbial 3% margin of error pronounce daily, swingometers vacillate, political…
Many of you will know the Grantchester Mysteries that have been televised. Here is a review of James Runcie’s prequel, which tells the story of how the vicar Sidney Chambers comes to detecting and solving crimes.
A novel from an author with literary connections. A relation of Alistair MacLean, Shona Maclean is the author of the Alexander Seaton and Damian Seeker series of historical crime mysteries set in 17th century Scotland.