“Ruth Malone is enthralling, challenging and secretive – is she really capable of murder?” – Little Deaths synopsis. The characters of a promiscuous mother and a struggling journalist are the protagonists entangled in the story of the horrifying murders of two children: Little Deaths is the debut novel from Emma Flint. From an early age, Flint Read More
Those familiar with Turgenev’s famous novella First Love may immediately expect a love affair of ill-fated, cataclysmic proportions. For those unfamiliar with the reference, the title of Gwendoline Riley’s First Love is cruelly, cleverly deceiving. A love story? Perhaps. But the bitterness and heart-breaking loneliness that plague the pages of this novel breed an unexpectedly Read More
Jane Draycott’s words have always encapsulated a timeless beauty with a charm which is somehow both otherworldly yet unmistakably rooted in our earth. In this her fourth collection of poems, following 2009’s Over, she continues in this vein. “It seems like forever”, she writes in the collection’s titular poem, “We are going to tame the Read More
SJ Fowler’s The Guide To Being Bear Aware is a paradigm for reflecting in a world gone awry. It is a collection with raw, political edge. Wittily, through a play-on-words, The Guide To Being Bear Aware strips the self bare, forcing the reader to acknowledge who they were before the influence of globalization and attendant Read More
it held in its hand, the spirit, a dainty fern of solid gold, as all ferns were before God loved and made them green. (“The spirit crept outside the house at night”) When we think of poetry, we do not think of silence; we think of a page filled, a rhyme uttered or uttered. Yet Read More
At first, C. E. Morgan’s The Sport of Kings appears to be yet another generational story about a wealthy family living in the American South. It soon becomes clear, however, that the novel is so much more than that. As the story unfolds, Morgan bluntly tackles racism, poverty, rape, obsession, and incest. For those with Read More
I might not have read this novel were it not longlisted for the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize. The hardcover with its stylised Edward Bawden-like black and red linocut of a rural scene – red sun, red fox, and red blurb byline counterbalanced by the bold black lines of plant life – seemed, well, just a Read More
“Feeling by themselves ain’t what matters.” The Mare, Mary Gaitskill. Think of a girl called Velvet, a dangerous horse, a riding competition, a growing obsession; the elements of one of the most-loved children’s films in the world. Mary Gaitskill’s “The Mare” draws freely and openly on the stories of National Velvet and Black Beauty, but Read More
Naomi Alderman’s fourth novel, and first endeavour into speculative fiction, is based on the simple question: what might happen if women really did run the world? Set mainly in the near future, the novel is told from various points of view as first teenage girls, and then women, suddenly become aware of a whole new Read More
This year’s degree show for Art and Philosophy offers the viewer a wealth of thought-provoking art works. There are interesting connections between artists’ interests, yet outcomes are hugely varied. Stacey Pover emphasises the healing qualities of art and the power of collaborative expression in performances. She asks participants to take part spontaneously in creating paintings outside Read More