Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of the novel for review. Opinions are entirely my own.
This book was published in hardback on 31st August 2023 by Simon and Schuster.
Thanks to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the blog tour for this book and for the beautiful copy for review. The book is out now and published by the fabulous people at Unbound.
As always, opinions are entirely my own.
From the Publisher:
-A full-colour compendium of hundreds of never-before-published artefacts from Adams’ archive, including diary entries, notes and musings, letters, photographs, scripts, poems and more.
– Authorised by the estate of Douglas Adams, it includes personal memorabilia from his family.
– Features a foreword from Stephen Fry and letters written after Adams’ death from friends and fans: Neil Gaiman, Margo Buchanan, Dirk Maggs, Robbie Stamp, Arvind David.
When Douglas Adams died in 2001, he left behind 60 boxes full of notebooks, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches and even poems. In 42, compiled by Douglas’s long-time collaborator Kevin Jon Davies, hundreds of these personal artefacts appear in print for the very first time.
Douglas was as much a thinker as he was a writer, and his artefacts reveal how his deep fascination with technology led to ideas which were far ahead of their time: a convention speech envisioning the modern smartphone, with all the information in the world living at our fingertips; sheets of notes predicting the advent of electronic books; journal entries from his forays into home computing – it is a matter of legend that Douglas bought the very first Mac in the UK; musings on how the internet would disrupt the CD-Rom industry, among others.
42 also features archival material charting Douglas’s school days through Cambridge, Footlights, collaborations with Graham Chapman, and early scribbles from the development of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker’s and Dirk Gently.
Alongside details of his most celebrated works are projects that never came to fruition, including the pilot for radio programme They’ll Never Play That on the Radio and a space-inspired theme park ride.
Douglas’s personal papers prove that the greatest ideas come from the fleeting thoughts that collide in our own imagination, and offer a captivating insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers and most enduring storytellers.
My Review:
Continue reading Blog Tour: ’42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams’, edited by Kevin Jon DaviesThanks to The Write Reads for inviting me on the blog tour for this charming and thought-provoking Middle Grade novel. Thanks to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for my review copy – opinions, as always, are my own.
This is a story about an unlikely friendship forged in difficult circumstances. Norah Day is a sweet, nature-loving girl – one who lives in temporary accommodation with her father and often goes hungry. In contrast, Adam Sinclair seems to have it all – caring parents, big house, his own treehouse. However, Adam is recovering from cancer and is being given no freedom by his overprotective mother – he’s not even allowed outside his own garden. These two children bond over rescuing a nest of baby birds – but their rescue efforts don’t stop there, especially in view of the coming flood.
This is the third in the series to feature DI Grace Archer, following on from the brilliant ‘The Art of Death’ and ‘See No Evil’. I’ve followed this series – breathlessly, sometimes peeking through my fingers, with a pounding heart – from the beginning. This third instalment is another terrifying, gruesome and twisty tale.
Thanks to Compulsive Readers and Zaffre Books for my place on the blog tour and my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are my own.
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘The Silent Man’ by David FennellI was absolutely delighted to be asked to join #TeamTennison and read the whole series featuring Jane Tennison from the start! Thanks to Compulsive Readers for my spot on the team and for my copies of the books.
This review is for ‘Tennison’, the first in the series – most people will be familiar with DCI Jane Tennison from the ‘Prime Suspect’ series featuring Dame Helen Mirren, but this series takes us back to 1973 and the very start of Tennison’s career.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘Tennison’ by Lynda La PlanteWelcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Fayne’. Thanks to Tramp Press and Helen Richardson for my place on the tour and proof copy of the book (published 17th August).
As always, opinions are my own!
Happy publication day to ‘The Good Liars’ – 17th August, 2023.
I loved the sound of this one – a 1920s tale of guilt and ghosts, mystery and murder. Thank you to the lovely people at HQ Stories for my review copy of this book.
This book centres on the Stilwell family of Darkacre Hall – Maurice, his wife Ida, his brother Leonard and long-time family friend Victor. When a policeman arrives at the house following up new information about the disappearance of a boy in 1914, the family (along with new servant, Sarah Hove) find themselves under scrutiny. Events conspire to make the meeting even more prolonged and intense, leading the family to re-evaluate the past and their relationships.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘The Good Liars’ by Anita FrankHappy publication day to ‘Grave Suspicions’ by Alice James. This is the third in the series to feature Lavington Windsor, everyone’s favourite estate agent by day and necromancer when the sun goes down!
I was incredibly lucky to be gifted a copy of this book by the author after I raved about the previous books in the series – you can read my reviews here. Anyway, you know the deal – opinions are still entirely my own, no matter how I got the book.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘Grave Suspicions’ by Alice JamesIt’s a brave author that takes a beloved character and creates a new story for them – and that’s exactly what Denise Mina has done here with Raymond Chandler’s famous private detective, Philip Marlowe.
Marlowe is mulling over a case that he’s closed that doesn’t feel right when he gets a summons to the sprawling Montgomery estate set high above Beverly Hills. The young heiress to the family fortune, Chrissie Montgomery, is missing and Marlowe is asked to find her. However, her elderly and dying father isn’t taking any chances – he’s hired another private detective who Marlowe knows well in order to set the rivals against each other in finding his daughter. As Marlowe gets nearer to the truth, a murder is committed and Marlowe has to consider whether Chrissie really is safest returning to her family.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘The Second Murderer’ by Denise MinaHappy publication day (3rd August) to ‘I Did It For You’ by Amy Engel!
Having enjoyed ‘The Roanoke Girls’, I was pleased to be granted an early copy of ‘I Did It For You’ for review. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HQ Stories – as always, opinions are my own.
This story follows a young woman, Greer Dunning, who returns to her small home town in Kansas. She has been away for over a decade, having left after the murder of her sister, Eliza, for which crime a man was executed. Greer finds her home unchanged in many ways – her family and close friends are there, the town’s rhythms are the same – but a new murder has shaken the inhabitants. The slaughter of a young couple in the same place as Eliza’s murder 14 years previously has raised the prospect of a copycat killer – and Greer finds herself wondering whether justice was truly done for her sister’s death.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘I Did It For You’ by Amy Engel
