Recipient of the 2014 Scottish Book Trust New Writer Poetry Award, Bridget Khursheed was already known by many on the poetry circuit before the publication of Roads to Yair. Some may argue that her approach to poetry is hardly traditional in that very tradition-aware part of the country, but there is no doubt that her Read More
With his first collection of short stories, Christos Tsiolkas is successful in looking with a new perspective at subjects which have often been considered to be taboo. The protagonists in Merciless Gods are misfits and junkies exploring their sexual identity. Almost all of the stories are set in Australia, where Tsiolkas himself grew up, and Read More
Red peppers and plantain, hibiscus and hummingbirds, saltfish and snapper, kaiso and calypso – all feature in Malika Booker’s debut collection, Pepper Seed, as its narrative slips between Guyana, Grenada, Trinidad and Brixton to tell intertwined personal and political stories. Booker’s writing is at once both searing and beautifully lyrical, the past slipping into the Read More
Lemn Sissay’s ability to inspire a wide gamut of emotions in his reader makes his last published collection, the 2008 Listener, still a thought-provoking and vivid collection. Comprising of one short essay and 57 free verse poems his is an individual voice which simultaneously evokes pathos, joy, hope and longing. Whatever the topic, and there are Read More
This is Lynn Michell’s second novel, following on from White Lies, which was published in 2011. Michell has also published non-fiction and children’s educational books. Alice Green is finding that hitting 50 is much the same as becoming invisible. In an attempt to turn this observation to her advantage, she goes on a shop-lifting spree. Read More
Forty-eight years after its television show introduction, Dad’s Army is a film burdened by audience expectations. It is not necessarily a remake or a re-telling, but nearly half a century later, the television sitcom that inspired the storyline is still considered one of the nation’s favourites and with that will surely come followers who would Read More
James Arthur’s collection is elegantly jacketed; an exquisite, somewhat Oriental-looking painting, framed in grey seems to capture the essence of that very lightning. Can we judge this book by its cover? Firstly, that arrestingly beautiful image, La Mer,is by renowned American Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell. Perhaps all is not quite what it seems. On the Read More
Alastair Bruce’s Boy on the Wire follows the efforts of John Hyde to revive his past; specifically the moment of his brother Paul’s death. With the use of a prologue, Bruce throws his readers straight into the deep end: “He is a man who lied, who told a story, a wild, fanciful story, about the death of a child, Read More
A debut novel which illustrates the tribulations and triumphs of raising an autistic child, Truestory by Catherine Simpson is simultaneously captivating, poignant and vivid. Living on a remote farm, Alice is forced to deal with Sam, her autistic son, Duncan, an emotionally estranged husband whose ventures plunge the family into chaos, and Larry, a travelling Read More
Donna Stonecipher’s Model City is an evocative and thought-provoking collection; despite an at times formulaic structure and expression, each poem feels new and progressive. Over the course of seventy-two separate pieces, the collection answers the simple question: “What was it like?”. In spite of being deliberately ambiguous about what the “it” is (perhaps the experience Read More