Obviously, it was the title that intrigued me. For her debut novel starring a serial killer who decides to murder her entire biological family, Mackie chooses Lady MacBeth’s demands to the witches as an epigraph: ‘Unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.’ […]
Have you ever really *listened* to the lyrics of your favourite song? If you have, do they make any sense? If they don’t, or even if there’s just room for confusion, then maybe the artist/s involved should expect to receive a letter soon: Derek and Dave Philpott are on the case and they’re determined to […]
Peter and Jane and Mummy Too: The Book. Sort of. Gill Sims is an extremely successful “mummy blogger” who maintains a Facebook page which presents the trials and tribulations of her family life to the world. It is funny. Very funny. So when I learned she had written a book, I was excited and delighted […]
The role of social media in publishing continues to fascinate me. Take Sergeant Colin Taylor. He was detective constable on the beautiful Isles of Scilly for around seven years. Scilly has approximately 2,600 inhabitants, yet Colin’s humorous Facebook and Twitter posts from his social media accounts amassed 60,000 followers. This level of demand for his […]
Sometimes giving books the benefit of the doubt is a Good Thing. Having been underwhelmed by ‘Five Go Parenting’ and ‘Five on Brexit Island’ I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the latest instalment in Bruno Vincent’s ‘Enid Blyton for Adults’ series: ‘Five Forget Mother’s Day’. What’s it about? George has, somehow, managed to fail to […]
Mother’s Day is fast approaching. This is an opportunity for hardworking mothers everywhere to receive thanks for their sterling efforts raising the next generation to say please and thank you, wipe their own noses and bottoms, and eat their peas using cutlery, not their fingers. Depending on the ages of any children you possess, you […]
Parenting: everyone has opinions and most people are full of advice. Katie Kirby knows better. She knows that parents do their best, that the material they have to work with is occasionally (indeed – often) nearly impossible to fathom or direct, and that amusing anecdotes are far more helpful than any well-meaning advice. With that […]
Ah, Brexit. Whether you love it, hate it, want it or are just thoroughly sick of hearing about it, you can’t avoid it. And nor, it seems, can the Famous Five. This is one of five books in Quercus’ ‘Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups’ series, a collection which aims to entertain nostalgic readers by embroiling the (now […]
Humpy Dumpty’s dead. Whodunit? If you’re thinking, “erm…he fell?” then you need to read this book. Although he was basically a good guy, businessman Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III had made a few enemies and was last seen, horribly drunk, boasting about his ability to summon up rather a large sum of money… What’s it […]
Sometimes books are the main event; sometimes they’re good to keep you company. Danny Wallace’s mildly amusing ‘join me’ definitely belongs to the latter group and kept me entertained without demanding my full attention. Who is Danny Wallace and why does he want me to join him? He’s less well-known than friend and fellow funny […]