First published 1910. Everyman paperback, 2001, pp 235, c.75,000 words. Aside from Well’s future fiction, this is one of his best-known works. How well does it stand up today? Wells was rather inclined to inject his own views and prejudices into his fiction, although this is perhaps the last of his primarily fiction works according […]
History of Mr Polly — H G Wells Read More »
First published 2022. Bench Press paperback, 2022, pp 200, c.70,000 words. There is a nice set up here: two families are being brought together as two single-parents bond. Su is a divorcee with a teenage daughter, Jeremy a widower with two sons, one a teenager, the other a child. Neither has a house large enough
Sound of It, The — Alison Jean Lester Read More »
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino First published 1980. Vintage paperback, 1998, translated by William Weaver, pp 260, c.80,000 words. This is an experimental work. Although couched as fiction, it is more a thought experiment on the relationship between writer, reader and text. There are ten incomplete short stories, unrelated in
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller — Italo Calvino Read More »
First published 2023. Embla paperback, 2023, pp 309, c.105,000 words. As a male I’m unlikely to be the target market for books like this, but that doesn’t stop me enjoying a well-told tale. Here is a straight-forward romance set aboard a luxury motor-yacht chartered for a week’s cruising in the western Mediterranean. This setting is
Summer on the Riviera, A — Rachael Barnett Read More »
First published 1955. Pan paperback, 1977, pp 253, c.92,000 words. The title of this book suggests that its subject is a tragedy, and so it is. Alan Duncan returns from Britain to his family farm in Australia to discover that the night before his arrival the parlourmaid apparently took her own life, and no one
Requiem for a Wren — Nevil Shute Read More »
First published 1974. Granada paperback, 1981, pp 304, c.110,000 words. Nowhere on the cover of this edition does it say that this is a collection of stories, presumably because the publishers know that would lower sales. There are actually five stories here, the first being the longest at about a hundred pages. I was just
Ebony Tower, The — John Fowles Read More »
First published 1952. Triad Granada paperback, 1985, pp 333, c.135,000 words. The title of this book sounds like a quote from something, but a search reveals that it is not Shakespeare or any of the other usual sources. Only a song is mentioned and that was written to accompany the film made from this book.
Many-Splendoured Thing, A — Han Suyin Read More »
First published 1975. Fourth Estate paperback, 2014, pp 253, c.65,000 words. This is classic Ballard: set in a concrete tower-block in London, the characters never seem to engage one another at an emotional level and there is a steadily growing dystopia. The story concerns three main protagonists: Wilder from floor three, Laing from floor twenty-five,
High-Rise — J G Ballard Read More »
First published 1900. Wordsworth paperback, 2002, pp 261 + 40p of introduction, notes, etc., c.120,000 words (main text). Conrad must have been a natural linguist to be able to write so well in English, his third or possibly fifth language: after Polish and French and probably Russian and German. He is little concerned with the
Lord Jim — Joseph Conrad Read More »
First Published 1987. Abacus paperback, 2013, pp 362, c.97,000 words. Mock-rock biopics are fertile ground to plough owing to the excesses of prog-rock and heavy metal bands. This is Spinal Tap, the 1984 film, set a blistering pace with several snippets become culturally embedded such as ‘turning it up to eleven.’ This is Banks’ take
Espedair Street — Iain Banks Read More »