Book Reviews
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We feature one book per month in this place of prominence. Older reviews can be found by scrolling down the page and clicking on the appropriate writer’s name
Stephen Kearney – Book Review December 2021- Normal People
Normal People by Sally Rooney review by Stephen Kearney How do we get to hear about a new publication, film or television series? There’s probably a thousand and one answers but for the most part, at least in my case, the first awareness just seems to appear...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review November 2021- Ireland and the EU Post Brexit
Ireland and the EU Post Brexit by Ray Bassett first published 2020 Review by Stephen Kearney Ireland and the EU Post Brexit is a very disturbing book. In fact, I would say it is one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. Let me make it clear; this...
Barry Goddard – Book review October 2021 – Mama’s last hug
MAMA'S LAST HUG I'm halfway through this book, and it is moving. The Bible gave humans dominion over the earth, while in recent times we have had Science putting us at the top of the evolutionary tree - same difference, really. Mama's Last Hug, written by a long-time...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review – September 2021 – How Not to be Wrong – The Art of changing Your Mind
James O’Brien Review (replaying the tapes) by Stephen Kearney “One thing about you” said a friend of long – very long – standing “is that you reflect, or as you’d put it, you replay the tapes.” How Not To Be Wrong, James O’Brien’s 2020 work, is a master class in...
Paul Pickering – Book Review – August 2021 – Reflections From a Bookshop Window
This is the author’s only published novel. The publisher, Martin Breese, who was a very good friend of mine, tried to encourage Clive Linklater to write more novels, without success. The author steadfastly refused, which is something of a pity. Clive actually owned...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review – July 2021 – Citizen Clem
Review by Stephen Kearney “An empty taxi pulled up outside ten Downing Street” ran the joke of the time “and Clement Attlee got out”. Orwell called him “a dead fish”. A chapter of this very biography is entitled “Few thought he was even a starter.” So embarrassed was...
Laurence Hattersley – Book Review – June 2021 – The Ministry of Bodies
At the X-ray conference, Tim our regular radiologist was back from holiday, but not noceably refreshed by the break. His increasing irritability had a comedic zest to it. He struggled to conceal his contemot for the overinvestigation by us physicians, and cagey,...
Barry Goddard – Book Review- May 2021 – The Kingdom Of Women
THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN The Mosuo, who live in a remote part of western China, have a matrilineal social structure. Their ways are being rapidly superseded as modern China moves in: they have become a tourist attraction. The author has lived with the Mosuo part-time for...
Paul Pickering – Book Review – April 2021 – The Graveyard Book
The book opens in a rather macabre fashion with a lone assassin killing the main characters parents and older sister. The 18 month old child escapes from his cot and wanders down stairs and out of the front door unbeknown to the knife wielding assassin. Bod, as he...
Stephen Kearney – Book Review – March 2021 – Looking for America
Looking for America by Ian Mutch (first published 2001) review by Stephen Kearney The Independent newspaper, in its obituary on Lord Denning, a one time powerful legal progressive who later went to seed in the mindless bog of English nationalism, mourned of his...
