Latest Literature Articles
Codswallop, Crumpet and Caper
Edward Allhusen
Old House Books
2009
Dr Johnson published his first dictionary in 1746. That book detailed just over 40,000 words that were used in the English language. However, language doesn’t stay till. As time passes, language changes. A new word is invented, others are begged and borrowed from other languages. This is immediately evident when looking at a modern dictionary and discovering that there are over 600,000 words used in the English language nowadays. Edward Allhusen’s Codswallop, Crumpet and Caper takes a look at over 1300 English words in common use today and explains how they came to be added to the 40,000 words used back in 1746.
The Last Mad Surge Of Youth
Mark Hodkinson
Pomona
2009
“He was going to be one of the select few — The Rolling Stones, U2, Bob Dylan, REM, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen — artists who remained credible but still had commercial success and who’s every album felt interwoven with itself, a cultural landmark.” It’s 2009 and John Barrett, former Killing Stars frontman is a has-been. In his heart he knows this, but he still has loyal fans so even if his latest album Godspace has sold a handful of copies, both his agent, Rupert Green and his second wife Esther are not even sure if he is worth it anymore. Where had it all gone wrong? What had happened to the ambitious punk wannabe who had been so full of integrity? How did he end up here?
The Wilderness
Samantha Harvey
Jonathan Cape
2009
Initially, Samantha Harvey’s debut novel The Wilderness is a confusing affair. Jake is 65, he has lost his wife and is starting to lose his mind. The latter being something his then alive wife has noted. Jake’s life has never been straight forward, therefore losing control of it is even less so. Jake has Alzheimer’s. This revelation appears early enough in the book to allow the reader time to digest what has gone before. That being a twisting a turning series of events, which without explanation would make no sense.
A Nasty Piece of Work
Graham Bendel
Fortune Teller Press
2008
Modern art is questioned, assessed and given a brutal analysis in A Nasty Piece of Work which sees literary agent Jonathan Urich handed the opportunity of a lifetime to repair his rapidly deteriorating reputation and become rich at the same time. It’s the setting for a dip into the mind of a seedy man who fantasises about a work colleague he’ll never be close to while frantically crying out for a hit novel to help realise his dreams. This mystery thriller tosses morals aside as the art world does, as the title suggests, get nasty.
The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Susanna Clarke
Bloomsbury USA
2006
The Ladies of Grace Adieu is the second book of Clarke’s saga, a moment for the writer to catch her breath before another big effort: eight short stories that give readers more information about the state of magic before Norrell and Strange and introduce yet more characters who will surely come back in future works, such as the half-faerie Alessandro Simonelli, who narrates “Mr Simonelli or The Faerie Widower”, and adventure buddies David Montefiore, a Jewish physician, and Tom Brightwind, a Faerie prince — as well as Brightwind’s bastard son, Lucius Winstanley, who conveniently disappears on a horse at the end of “Tom Brightwind or How the Fairy Bridge Was Built at Thoresby”.
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