Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls #Review

Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards,  is one of her best to date, which is saying something when you think about the brilliant Regeneration. I didn’t study Latin or Class Civ at school – it wasn’t that sort of place – and I’m aware of the gaping hole …

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Hilary McKay’s The Skylarks’ War #review

‘More than one hundred years ago, in the time of gas lamps and candlelight, when shops had wooden counters and the streets were full of horses,’ McKay’s utterly wonderful Clarry is born. Her name, her mother whispers, means ‘Clear and bright,’ and so she is. Despite a difficult start, Clarry’s childhood is, on the whole …

Robert Dinsdale’s The Toy Makers #review

Everyone wants their toys to come to life when they’re children. Or perhaps what we actually want is for our toys to become lifelike. The reality of toys having their own minds, becoming sentient beings, is perhaps a darker proposition. And this novel, like all good tales brushed with a fairytale quality, certainly does have …

Not Welsh Enough – reading Iain Sinclair’s Black Apples of Gower

My relationship with my home country is complicated, and it always has been. Growing up in the Swansea Valley, I was always aware that I wasn’t entirely Welsh, not in the way my school friends were anyway. Mum came from Lancashire and I’ve written elsewhere on this blog about how I romanticised our holidays to …

An Interview with … Ashlee Rose

Today, I'm chatting to Ashlee Rose about her writing, her inspirations, and snacking. She's the author of two self-published novels, and she's now writing her third. Hi Ashlee, tell us a little about your writing to date. I write rom-coms with some soft erotic scenes. I try to make my books as light hearted as …