A reviewer’s duty, before forming responses of any kind, is to read, and to read carefully. That responsibility begins from the moment the text is selected, whatever the seductions of the title, cover or writer. Anuradha Roy’s third novel is indeed seductively packaged. Sleeping on Jupiter revels in a very beautiful jacket and it is Read More
Byssus – strong, tenaciously anchoring; the mussel’s beard, all delicate multiple fibres, with the capacity to be woven into highly desirable cloth. Jen Hadfield’s title for her first collection since the Eliot-winning Nigh-No-Place is a near-perfect metaphor for her attachment to her adopted Shetland, and for that land’s own bedrock hold. Byssus challenges with its Read More
We shared Octoberfuls tasty with appletea under tangerine trees. I asked what he did. Ah The Royal Bank pays me, but I source old harpsichords which I restore. Some need me for years. I play them then pass them to others who love them. My passion. That’s who I am. So here’s to that man Read More
I wore out my youth first, and glad I did. How would My dress be newer now If I had played safer? (from Song of the Woman of Breare, translated by Ní Chuilleanáin), 9th Century Old Irish) The cover describes Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s “most recent excavation of memory and examination of time (and timelessness […]) Read More