Did I draw this? Frame or bed, hole could be window, flesh could be flat, nobody looking, One body prostrate, another attending. Another beautiful poetic prose book by Max Porter, The Death of Francis Bacon is a brief tale of Bacon's final days. In April 1992, Bacon fell ill in Madrid, taken to a convent…
Be warned, then: the collected volumes of this series will contain frozen mountains, foetid swamps, hostile foreigners, hostile fellow countrymen, the occasional hostile family member, bad decisions, misadventures in orienteering, diseases of an unromantic sort, and a plenitude of mud. A book that gripped me from page one, A Natural History of Dragons is the…
Veronica Roth's latest novel is the start of a contemporary fantasy series set 10 years after the defeat of the 'Dark One'. The story begins with Sloane, one of the five Chosen Ones, struggling to cope with normal life and unfolds to reveal a greater plot at work. I was first drawn to this book…
This is a book I've been eager to read ever since I first heard of it. There is always a slight worry when someone comes to adapting Shakespeare's work or his life for a modern audience. Sometimes it can work brilliantly - see the film Shakespeare in Love is lighthearted, bawdy and completely in tune…
What should have been a moment of triumph for me, standing up for myself and even settling the matter without blows, turned oddly sour as I realised that the kids around me were now afraid of me. By so daringly stepping away from my role as victim, I was to be feared, or at least…
A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun. Erin Morgenstern's long awaited second book explores the very idea of stories. We follow Zachary, a video game player and book nerd, on his journey to get to the Starless Sea and submit to fate. From a…
I first read Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses years and years ago and, of course, was excited to watch the TV show last month. Noughts and Crosses is an alternative reality in which the native African people colonised the Europeans. Set in an alternative 21st century Britain in which the Crosses (darker skinned people) dominate…
Wakenhyrst is the gothic tale of Maud Stearne's childhood growing up under the tyrannical hand of her father, a man descending into madness. The book starts with a journalist article of 'the first outsider who's met Maud and been inside Wake's End' for 50 years. Following this is a series of letters between Maud and…
The Colditz Story is a short but interesting book detailing Pat Reid's time as a prisoner of war at the German prison Colditz and his many attempts at escape. Colditz - the dreaded German P.O.W. camp had the reputation for being totally escape-proof. I was unaware when beginning the book that Pat was not yet…
'Educated' is a memoir of Tara Westover's life growing up in a Mormon family. They are survivalists living on the edge of a mountain and working to become completely self reliant. Tara Westover has never been to school. She has never heard the word 'Holocaust' before. She tells her story of outgrowing her roots and…
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