Tag: love

‘More than a Woman’ by Caitlin Moran

I love Caitlin Moran. I think she is funny, brave and always readable. I love the fact she has turned her considerable journalistic writing skills into a career in which she produces brilliant fiction and non-fiction books. She is the reason I have a Times subscription (she is a regular writer for them) and a shelf full of her previous books.

That needed to be said up front. Although I read and review lots of books, I’m not the most impartial reviewer in this case. Evidence: I pre-ordered this book and paid out of my own pocket! No ARC, no waiting for the prices to come down, no second-hand copy, no waiting for Christmas…honestly, this is all so out of character for me!

With that said, I did wonder how she would have enough to say about the topic of being a woman. She covered a lot of ground (rather marvellously) in her book ‘How to be a Woman’ ten years ago – how much more is there to say?

Loads, it turns out. Moran is now in her forties (like me) and has plenty to say about this stage in her life. It is in middle age that (Moran observes) life becomes less about you and more about everyone else – your children growing up, pressures of work, ageing parents – and it is really tough. You aren’t the same person as you were ten years ago and it needs a whole new way of navigating. Add into this the current state of society – it’s safe to say the patriarchy hasn’t yet been smashed – and Moran has plenty to write about.

This book is structured into chapters denoting an hour in the middle-aged women’s day. Thus, we are taken from 7am (The Hour of ‘The List’) through various points in the day – The Hour or Parenting Teenage Children (eeek – not looking forward to this myself!), The Hour of Housework, The Hour of Crisis… It is all hugely relatable and it is strangely comforting that the things I stress about seem to be universal.

Particularly striking for me was ‘The List’ as I’ve done a lot of thinking about mental load recently and the fact that women seem to bear the brunt of the thinking about things. It was heartening to read Moran’s own list and think that I am not the only one trying to keep on top of work, parenting, marriage, life admin, pet care…

Yes, there are a lot of serious points made here about women’s place in society and the pressures to ‘have it all’ (read: ‘do it all’). However, it is also absolutely hilarious and Moran is unafraid to share some rather intimate things. It is like a chat with your best friend, if your best friend is a totally unfiltered over-sharer! The bathwater thing (you’ll have to read it) really made me laugh out loud…

As well as being laugh-out-loud funny in places, there are some really serious points, especially Moran’s daughter’s fight with anorexia. I found the story extremely moving and am glad that Moran (and her daughter, because it was shared with her permission) included this intimate story that shows that each family has its struggles behind closed doors.

This is a feminist book but one that should be required reading for everyone – it is so insightful and engaging that I think anyone would enjoy it (and probably learn something along the way).

Please do go and buy a copy of this book. If you are a women of a similar age to Moran (or live with one) then you will recognise a lot here. It is uplifting and extremely funny, but will leave you with a lot of food for thought.

If you’d like a copy of this, please use my affiliate link below – this earns my blog commission at no extra cost to you.

‘A Theatre for Dreamers’ by Polly Samson (AUDIOBOOK)

Something a bit different for me today – an audiobook!

I’ll admit to not always getting on brilliantly with audiobooks at times in the past, but I really couldn’t resist the sound of this one after I saw Polly Samson read sections of it during a Hay Festival online event. I found she had a really soothing voice and I was intrigued by the story that she described, plus the fact that she had written music to accompany the novel with her husband, Dave Gilmour.

The story is told by a fictional character, Erica, who arrives on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960. Her mother has died and she is visiting her mother’s friend, Charmian Clift, who lives on the island with her husband, George Johnston (a writer) and their children. Erica arrives with her boyfriend, Jimmy, and what follows is a glorious time in which Erica learns about love, loss, her mother’s past, art and writing.

Erica’s time on Hydra introduces us to a massive cast of characters, some of whom were real people – including Charmian and George, Leonard Cohen, Axel Jensen and Marianne Ihlen. This is one book where you will be constantly googling the people to find out the reality behind the fiction! The only issue I had was the fact that the novel serves us with a massive cast and I couldn’t always remember who was who!

Thanks to Nemanja .O. for sharing their work on Unsplash.

One of the main stars of the novel is Hydra itself and the reader is treated to the sun-soaked, heady, irresistible charms of the island throughout. It sounds like a beautiful place and absolutely perfect for this tale of 1960s free spirits in what was essentially a big artistic community of expats.

Another draw for the novel is Charmian Clift herself who becomes a mother-figure to Erica but is hiding her own secrets. Indeed, it is Erica’s relationship with Charmian that drives a lot of the narrative, so it was no surprise to learn that it was Charmian’s own writing that led Polly Samson to write this book.

I think this is a novel definitely enhanced by the audiobook format. It was lovely to hear Polly Samson read the book as I got a real sense of how she imagined the characters to speak. I also thought that the little musical interludes between chapters and the song at the end enhanced the narrative – it gave more of a taste of the time and music and added depth to the novel. As already mentioned, Polly Samson’s voice is extremely relaxing to listen to and I really enjoyed being caught up in her world of artists, poets and novelists on Hydra as related to me in her hypnotic voice! Although I found the narrative a bit sprawling and long in places, I found I enjoyed the way it was presented.

I would highly recommend this audiobook – it really does offer more than just an audio recording of the novel and I liked the story of the intertwined lives and the lasting impact of the events of 1960.

With thanks to NetGalley who gave me a copy of the audiobook in return for an honest review.

If you’d like to buy a copy, the Amazon link is below – I may receive commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you (excellent!)

Header image with thanks to Dominik Gawlik for sharing their work on Unsplash.

Blog Tour: ‘Longhand’ by Andy Hamilton

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Andy Hamilton’s book ‘Longhand’. This was published on 3rd September by Unbound. The tour is organised by Random Things Tours.

From the publisher


‘From beginning to end, a joy to read. A tale of mingled tragedy and comedy,
disaster and triumph … A handwritten love letter to a woman we never meet,
that’s also a love letter to humanity’ NEIL GAIMAN

The new novel from comedy legend Andy Hamilton, whose writing credits include
Outnumbered and Drop the Dead Donkey, Longhand reimagines the life of immortal Greek hero Heracles, who is currently residing in contemporary Scotland with his girlfriend Bess.

Written entirely in Andy’s own longhand, complete with crossings out and edits
Malcolm George Galbraith is a large, somewhat clumsy, Scotsman. He’s being forced to leave the woman he loves behind and needs to explain why.


So he leaves her a handwritten note on the kitchen table (well, more a 300-page letter than a note).


In it, Malcolm decides to start from the beginning and tell the whole story of his long life, something he’s never dared do before.


Because Malcolm isn’t what he seems: he’s had other names and lived in other places. A lot of other places. As it gathers pace, Malcolm’s story combines tragedy, comedy, mystery, a touch of leprosy, several murders, a massacre, a ritual sacrifice, an insane tyrant, two great romances, a landslide, a fire, and a talking fish.

‘A glorious comic novel, a brilliant satire, an artwork and a historical document. Never has the word “readable” meant more. Never has the word “manuscript” been more literal. Hand-written, rib-tickling, spine-tingling and heart-wringing. Uniquely brilliant’ STEPHEN FRY

My Review

I honestly did not know what to expect from this novel and started it with only three pieces of information:

  1. Andy Hamilton is funny – he co-created ‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ and ‘Outnumbered’ and has appeared on numerous other funny TV panel shows so his comedy pedigree isn’t in question.
  2. ‘Longhand’ is written in…well, longhand. The whole book is handwritten, mercifully by someone (Hamilton himself) who has beautiful and easy-to-read writing.
  3. It’s published by Unbound, the crowdfunded publisher known for some quirky and brilliant books.

So far, so good! What I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer scale and range of this book – geographically, narratively, emotionally… wow, it’s unexpected!

The book purports to be a letter written by a man called Malcolm Galbraith to his partner of twenty years, Bess. He is being forced to leave her and this is his farewell note in which he explains why.

And this is where the story gets really strange. Malcolm isn’t the mild-mannered Scotsman that Bess has known and loved. He actually has a past in which he lived in other places and other times, had other names and identities, and the 350-odd pages of this novel can barely contain it all!

In his chequered past, there are murders, a sacrificial cow, two romances, tyrannical rulers, a massacre, a landslide, a court battle… the reader can start to see that this is no ordinary life. Malcolm has faced great tragedies in his time and only now is he prepared to lay his life story out before (one of) the love(s) of his life, Bess.

I’ll admit that this book has much more emotional depth than I was expecting. Malcolm is being forced to leave and the poignancy of this situation is evident throughout – it is only at the point of leaving that he can share his hidden secrets. And it’s a huge risk – his story is bizarre and incredible, but will it also be unbelievable for Bess?

It’s so hard to review this without giving away the key ideas behind the story which I really don’t want to do because it totally knocked me for six and I think all readers should feel that same incredulity and uncertainty!

However, what can be said is that Malcolm’s story, set in the distant past as it is, reveals a lot about modern society. Through elements which seem disparate from 21st century Britain, we get glimpses of some really big and important ideas. Brexit Britain. The cult of selfishness. Abuse of power. Love’s small intimacies. Death and grief. Family relationships. Not learning from history’s mistakes. The strength of the NHS. Malcolm has experienced it all and has moments of profound wisdom.

Malcolm’s story also has moments of immense tragedy, which I also didn’t really see coming. For something that is ostensibly a funny book, it is very moving. I actually read this book in one sitting because I really needed to see how it ended!

And yes, it is also very funny.

The real joys in the novel are the everyday observations, the juxtaposition of the epic story with Malcolm’s asides about fixing the boiler, the presentation of some lovely comic characters. Without giving anything away, watch out for the football match and Billy’s Dad, the dodgy lawyer, the talking fish and – even more surreally – Elvis.

I’ve admitted that I picked this book up armed with only the three pieces of information at the start of this review. However, I finished reading it (at way after midnight!) with the sense that I’d read something really quite special. It’s way beyond a funny, entertaining read – yes, it ticks those boxes but it is also wise and thought-provoking.

This book really is one that will stay with me for a long time. You should read it!

And if you still aren’t convinced, you only need to look in the back of this book for the sponsors who put their own hard-earned cash into making this book a reality. The people who had faith in this story and in Andy Hamilton include Brenda Blethyn, Rory Bremner, Richard Osman and Neil Gaiman – an impressive roll-call of supporters in anyone’s books.

About the Author

Andy Hamilton is a comedy writer, performer and director. He regularly appears on the BBC TV panel shows Have I Got News for You and on Radio 4’s News
Quiz and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. His television writing credits include Outnumbered, Drop the Dead Donkey, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Trevor’s World of Sport, Ballot Monkeys, Power Monkeys and many others. He also co-created the movie What We Did On Our Holiday. For twenty years he has played Satan in the Radio 4 comedy Old Harry’s Game, which he also writes.

‘The Magnificent Sons’ by Justin Myers

This book – published today in hardback – is a warm, witty and uplifting read.

I really love funny books and Adam Kay (who endorsed this book) so I thought this was definitely worth a try.  I am certainly glad I did.

Jake is edging towards thirty with a girlfriend who is expecting to become a fiancee, but he isn't quite comfortable in his own skin or even with his own family.  His younger brother, Trick, has just publically come out as gay, not that anyone ever considered he might not be.  Their parents are accepting of their youngest son's sexuality, but seem a whole lot less supportive when Jake announces his own bisexuality.  This book charts Jake's progress from heterosexual coupledom into uncharted waters...

The book is funny - not side-splittingly so, but certainly warm and witty.  However, its strength lies in its characterisation.  Jake is troubled and flawed and capable of some bad decisions, and his family and friends are so real.  This is a book that swerves stereotypes wherever possible - Jake's girlfriend is fabulous even when she is hurting when she could easily have been made into a woman scorned and I loved her.  Similarly, Jake's family are brash and loud, but also extremely subtly drawn and tender when it matters.

I enjoyed this book - it's a lively and engaging read that doesn't preach or stereotype.  Instead, we get a full range of well-observed and realistic characters who are just trying to navigate their own situations.  A lovely book and one I whole-heartedly recommend.

I received a free copy of the book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst

Links to purchase this title in hardback and on Kindle from the UK Amazon store are below. The Quick and the Read may earn commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you.