Being more partial to a good thriller or murder mystery, I was prepared to dislike Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes on sight. And I did. The cover is a soppy, girly pink, more suited to a birthday card for a maiden aunt than a novel. The first few pages are given over to Read More
Morag Muir is a remarkably prolific artist who has demonstrated over the past 30 years her dedication to art. She has managed the difficult feat of balancing a focused and contagious enthusiasm for painting with a supportive attitude to other artists’ creativity, and a careful tending of her family. For a time she also held Read More
Paul Muldoon, winner of the Pulitzer, Griffin and TS Eliot prizes and highly acclaimed for his many poetry collections, including Quoof (1983) and Moy Sand and Gravel (2002), has returned to poetry’s lyrical roots with the publication of The Word On The Street. Written to be set to music, many of these rock lyrics have been recorded by the Princeton Read More
Seven sections, each with seven poems, and each poem composed of seven couplets – sounds like an incantation? It isn’t. This is the formal structure of Damian Walford Davies’ new poetry collection, enticingly entitled, Witch. The witch hunt is chronicled in seven sections, each voiced in the first person by a single persona, except the third Read More
Lynn Michell’s novel White Lies explores the issues of truth and memory against the backdrop of Kenyan political history, whilst also more broadly exploring the place of the individual in pivotal historical moments. Michell’s story revolves around Eve, a middle aged woman caring for her aged and difficult father, David. In an attempt to make their time Read More
Edgar Allan Poe, the celebrated short fiction enthusiast, is often attributed the quote: “A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.” David Constantine, for one, seems to have taken this to heart. In his fourth collection of stories, Tea at the Midland, Constantine has created an outstanding work in Read More
Beautifully woven narratives, coloured by the traditions and folklore of the poet’s native Trinidad and Tobago, form Fawzia Kane’s debut collection, Tantie Diablesse; theycombine to create an extremely engaging read. While her poetry contains autobiographical elements, Kane does not permit these moments to overpower the collection, thus allowing the poetry to achieve a sense of Read More
The love triangle is a familiar trope in the movie industry, yet Summer in February (2013), a true love-triangle story, retains a significant amount of substance thanks to its authenticity. Jonathan Smith, a teacher of lead actor Dan Stevens, wrote the book and subsequent screenplay, providing a fascinating route from page to screen. The film centres on Read More
In her documentary Stories We Tell director Sarah Polley offers a revealing insight into her own life as she presents the story of her mother’s extra-marital affair and her own uncertainties as to the true identity of her biological father. I must admit, I was unsure what to expect when I took my seat for this film. Read More
Martha Lea’s The Specimen is set around the mid 1800’s, a time when there was increasing tension between religion and science. This friction and unease plays a significant role in the narrative, having a notable effect on the characters, in particular, Gwen Carrick and her relationship with her sister, Euphemia. Gwen is inspired by the works of Read More