One Minute Book Review – The Lie by Helen Dunmore

Shell-shocked and haunted by the death of his best friend, Daniel Branwell returns to his childhood village where he no longer has any family ties. He is offered shelter by an elderly blind woman and, when she dies, takes over her isolated cottage setting in train the events and lies, of omission and commission, which … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Lie by Helen Dunmore

Hilary Mantel’s Rules for Writers

There are many, many articles out there containing advice for new and developing writers. I skim through most of them, head nodding, thinking 'Yes, I do that'. The other day I stumbled across this article on writing from 2010 by Hilary Mantel which raised some points I hadn't thought much about before. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/22/hilary-mantel-rules-for-writers Several of  … Continue reading Hilary Mantel’s Rules for Writers

One Minute Book Review – Disclaimer by Renee Knight

A riveting read.  For the first time in years, I stayed up until 3am to finish this book. In this psychological thriller, documentary maker Catherine Ravenscroft discovers a book she cannot remember buying on her beside table detailing a incident in her life that she thought no one else knew about. The certainties of her … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Disclaimer by Renee Knight

One Minute Book Review – The Luminaries by Eleanor Caton

This vibrant and complex novel, set during the New Zealand Gold Rush, is Victorian in scope and language yet it reads as fluidly as spare modern prose. Thirteen men are drawn together to uncover the mystery at the heart of occurrences on a single night two weeks prior to the opening of the story: a … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Luminaries by Eleanor Caton

One Minute Book Review – The Chimes by Anna Smaill

This novel is set in a dystopian future which has fallen back to the structures of the late medieval period. Life is regulated by music, the written word has been banned and memories fractured and wiped. It is not a quick read and requires some initial concentration. The prose is beautiful and fluid and carries … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Chimes by Anna Smaill

One Minute Book Review – The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

This novel takes place in three time  periods. In the present, Yung Ling Teoh, a retired judge, looks back on her life during the Malayan Emergency in 1951. A former prisoner of the Japanese, she had apprenticed herself to Aritomo, once the gardener to the Emperor of Japan. She wishes to learn the art of … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng