The Literary Sofa
Loss
Guest Author – Claire King on A Child’s Point of View
Although there’s been a trend for books with child narrators over the last few years, not many have appeared on the Literary Sofa. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman demonstrated the potential rewards for authors who succeed in capturing a child’s voice for the adult fiction market. No wonder it’s so notoriously difficult to pull off: the voice has to … Continue reading
Book Review – The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman
Sometimes you just get a feeling about a book. As I mentioned in a recent post Book Titles – (Don’t) Call It What You Like, I wanted to read The Light Between Oceans from the moment I heard the title: it is original, it conveys the theme and gives a real taste of the beauty … Continue reading
Book Review – Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
I wanted variety in my Fiction Hot Picks for 2012 and this book is certainly different, even down to the way it made it onto the list. Most of the novels are included because I’d heard the author’s agent/editor raving about them, which they are after all paid to do; thanks to their good judgement I haven’t had a … Continue reading
Book Review: Are We Nearly There Yet? by Ben Hatch
I feel as though I’ve robbed Ben Hatch. To have paid only 99p on Kindle for Are We Nearly There Yet? doesn’t seem right. But I’m going to make up for it by buying some hard copies because it would make a brilliant Christmas present for anyone who (sorry, this is quite a list): has kids … Continue reading
Book Review: The Devil’s Music by Jane Rusbridge
I recently spent some time on the coast in Dorset, but I’ve been thinking about the sea for weeks, since reading The Devil’s Music by Jane Rusbridge. When you read a lot (and I’m up to 46 novels so far this year), even good books fade and blur in the memory, but a month after … Continue reading
The Time We Had: 20 years later, I remember my Dad
My Dad died 20 years ago this week, on 14 October 1991, of a rare kidney cancer which can’t be diagnosed until it’s too late. He was 58. I was already considering writing something about him because of his anniversary, but it was the death last week of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple at the … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 