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‘Alexa, what is there to know about love?’ by Brian Bilston

An belated happy publication day to the new poetry collection from Brian Bilston! This little gem of a book was out last Thursday (21st January) so do order now!

I first found Brian Bilston’s poetry on Twitter and loved its clever wordplay – this led me on to his first poetry collection, ‘You Took The Last Bus Home’ and his excellent novel (with poetic interludes) ‘Diary of a Somebody’. I was, therefore, thrilled to be granted an ARC of his new poetry collection by NetGalley and the publisher.

The poetry is – as the title suggests – loosely focused on the theme of love and is exactly what readers have come to expect of Bilston’s poetry – clever wordplay, interesting perspectives, unexpected twists. It is perhaps a little more serious in places than some of his other poetry (and certainly more serious than the ones that are so popular on Twitter). However, it is an enjoyable read – albeit a quick one as it seemed fairly short.

As a Literature geek, I really enjoyed the poems where Bilston riffed on literature from the past, from Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (in ‘Cleopatra’) to Wordsworth (‘Status Update: a Lonely Cloud’) to tragic lovers (‘Five clerihews for Doomed Lovers’). However, Bilston is equally comfortable playing around with Mills and Boon novels, Spoonerisms, Brexit and many other incredibly varied ideas.

This is a lively and varied poetry collection that I’d recommend to those who like their poetry humorous. It does have serious messages and will leave you with food for thought, but – above all else – it is entertaining and engaging.

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Header photo with thanks to Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash.

WWW Wednesday – 20th January 2021

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.

Links are provided for books already published – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases (at no extra cost to you!)

What have you recently finished reading?

This week I’ve mainly been reading ‘The Jigsaw Man’ by Nadine Matheson. I won a proof copy of this from the lovely people at HQ Stories and was absolutely gripped by the gruesome tale of a serial killer on the streets of London. Those with a sensitive disposition should steer clear, but I thought this was a pacey and exciting story with a strong female lead, Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley. A review will follow on my blog nearer to publication date in February 2021.

I also finished ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ by Agatha Christie which I loved. It has been a long time since I read Christie and I have seen a lot of the TV adaptations so it can be tricky finding a ‘fresh’ one! This one was vaguely familiar but I still failed to solve the crime myself and had to rely on Poirot’s ‘little grey cells’ which are in better conditon than mine! I read this with the book group at The Write Reads and it was a joy to discuss with them.

Lastly, I read Margaret Atwood’s new poetry collection, ‘Dearly’, which I have both in hardback (thank you, Waterstones’ sale) and audiobook (thanks, NetGalley). This is a powerful collection of poems that addresses – among so many other things – love, loss, ageing, feminism and the environment. I’ve got a lot of digesting of this book that needs to happen before I can attempt a review, but it will follow on the blog in due course.

What are you reading now?

I’m still reading ‘Maiden Voyages: Women and the Golden Age of Transatlantic Travel’ by Sian Evans although this has taken a backseat this week to all the crime fiction! This is a glorious and engagingly-written account of women at sea in the ‘Golden Age’, approximately between the wars but the narrative begins with the slightly pre-WWI ‘Titanic’ sinking. I love the fact that this covers a range of female experiences, from stewardesses to millionairesses.

What do you think you will read next?

I really need to clear some of the NetGalley shelf. I’ve got my eye on ‘Dark Truths’ by AJ Cross (a forensic mystery) and ‘Bad Habits’ by Flynn Meaney (YA humour) as books that I think will keep me going!

Additionally, I’ve got another looming blog tour for Carol Wyer’s ‘An Eye for An Eye’ which looks to be an interesting police procedural and the first in a series to feature DI Kate Young – this one sounds right up my street!

So that’s me for this week! As always, thanks for reading and please do follow my blog for more updates.

Thank to NetGalley for the books in exchange for an honest review.

My Goodreads 100

In what might work out to be the geekiest post ever, I thought I’d have a closer look at the 100 books I’ve read this year. I completed my Goodreads challenge this week so it seems a good time to pause and take stock.

Things that don’t surprise me a bit…

I know that I read a lot of female writers, so the gender ratio 60:40 in favour of female writers didn’t surprise me at all. A lot of my favourite detective series are written by women (Rachel Lynch, Carla Kovach, Jane Casey, Elly Griffiths…I could go on!)

Also unsurprising was the number of books that I read for free this year – I’ve always read a lot through NetGalley, plus have done some blog tours, so it is to be expected that a huge proportion of my reads (74%) were free in exchange for an honest review. I am eternally grateful to NetGalley, blog tour hosts, publishers and authors for keeping me in reading material!

Finally, because of my NetGalley obsession, it makes perfect sense that my most read format this year was on Kindle (71%). I invested in a Kindle Oasis earlier this year because I thought the warm light feature might be kinder on my eyes, especially given how long I stare at it!

Things that did surprise me…

I know I read quite widely, but I thought I’d probably be very heavy on the crime and historical fiction. This did turn out to be true – 44% of my books had some kind of crime element, whether in a contemporary or historical setting. However, only 30% of my chosen reads had a historical setting – something I thought would be higher.

What I was pleasantly surprised by was the fact that 27% of the books were non-fiction. I do love non-fiction but thought it would be more overshadowed than that in the statistics. I was also happy to see that there was a range of genres in the mix too – poetry, humour, romance and ‘other’ (contemporary fiction, play scripts) made up a good chunk.

I seem to be heavily dependent on the 4* rating (71% of my books in 2020) but it was heartening to see that nearly 1/5 of the books I read this year were 5* ones. I wasn’t too surprised to see the small proportion of 3* rating (and nothing below) because I choose my books carefully and DNF any that won’t make 3 stars!

Some lists…

My 5 Star Reads of 2020 (so far) – links to reviews where possible!

‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton

‘Practically Perfect’ by Katy Brand

‘Essex Girls’ by Sarah Perry

‘Boy’ by Roald Dahl

‘More than a Woman’ by Caitlin Moran

‘Cows Can’t Jump’ by Philip Bowne

‘A Tomb With a View’ by Peter Ross

‘The Quickening’ by Rhiannon Ward

‘Longhand’ by Andy Hamilton

‘The Betrayals’ by Bridget Collins (review coming soon)

‘Death in the East’ by Abir Mukherjee

‘The Miseducation of Evie Epworth’ by Matson Taylor

‘Dead Famous’ by Greg Jenner

‘This is Shakespeare’ by Emma Smith

‘Grave Secrets’ by Alice James

‘Broken Silence’ by Liz Mistry

‘Daughters of Night’ by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (coming in 2021)

‘A Curious History of Sex’ by Kate Lister

‘The Graves of Whitechapel’ by Claire Evans

‘The Switch’ by Beth O’Leary

‘Difficult Women’ by Helen Lewis

Books I Bought With My Own Money and Read This Year:

‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton

‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’ by Bill Bryson

‘Practically Perfect’ by Katy Brand

‘Essex Girls’ by Sarah Perry

‘The Princess and the Prick’ by Wallaburga Appleseed

‘Boy’ by Roald Dahl

‘More than a Woman’ by Caitlin Moran

‘A Tomb With a View’ by Peter Ross

‘Good Samaritans’ by Will Carver

‘The Book of Humans’ by Adam Rutherford

‘A Chip Shop in Poznan’ by Ben Aitken

‘Women Don’t Owe You Pretty’ by Florence Given

‘State of the Union’ by Nick Hornby

‘The Great Godden’ by Meg Rosoff

‘A Rising Man’ by Abir Mukherjee

‘Three Women’ by Lisa Taddeo

‘Dead Famous’ by Greg Jenner

‘This is Shakespeare’ by Emma Smith

‘A Murderous Relation’ by Deanna Raybourn

‘You Took the Last Bus Home’ by Brian Bilston

‘When the Dogs Don’t Bark’ by Angela Gallop

‘A Million Years in a Day’ by Greg Jenner

‘The Golden Tresses of the Dead’ by Alan Bradley

‘A Curious History of Sex’ by Kate Lister

’52 Times Britain was a Bellend’ by James Felton

‘Fleabag’by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

9 Writers I’ve Read More Than One Book By This Year:

Ben Aitken
Greg Jenner
Abir Mukherjee
Carla Kovach
Rachel Lynch
Andrew Taylor
Nick Hornby
William Sieghart (2 poetry anthologies)
Elly Griffiths

Brilliant Debut Novels

‘Cows Can’t Jump’ by Philip Bowne
‘A Girl Made of Air’ by Nydia Hetherington
‘People of Abandoned Character’ by Clare Whitfield
‘The Chalet’ by Catherine Cooper
‘The Thursday Murder Club’ by Richard Osman
‘The Miseducation of Evie Epworth’ by Matson Taylor
‘The Eighth Detective’ by Alex Pavesi
‘Grave Secrets’ by Alice James
‘The Servant’ by Maggie Richell-Davies
‘The Quickening’ by Rhiannon Ward (first novel published under this name)

5 Surprises This Year

Alice James’ ‘Grave Secrets’ – I don’t read a lot of fantasy novels, but this vampire and zombie one absolutely won me over. Well outside of my comfort zone, but it was just so funny and lively and immersive.
‘Longhand’ by Andy Hamilton – I had some reservations about reading a book written by hand (in beautiful handwriting though!) However, I was absolutely transfixed by this extremely quirky and humorous novel with a surprising Classical theme.
‘The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders’ by Ben Aitken – the charming Bill Bryson-esque travel writing had me totally engaged in this (true) tale of a young man’s coach trips with Shearings (and his Gran!)
‘The Miseducation of Evie Epworth’ by Matson Taylor – I was prepared for a rom-com, but what I got was a gorgeous 1960s coming of age tale packed with humour and one of the best characters of the year.
‘A Tomb With a View’ by Peter Ross – I’ve tried to get everyone I know to read this! I thought I’d like this non-fiction telling of stories of graveyards and their people; I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.

Affiliate links to my books of the year (so far) – I may earn a small commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my blog!

So that’s my Goodreads 100! It’s been an odd year – I don’t usually expect to read 100 books, let alone 100 books by October. I hope you’ve enjoyed my trawl through my reading so far this year and thank you for visiting and supporting my blog.

Header photo with thanks to Floris Andréa for sharing their work on Unsplash.

‘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.

‘A Little History of Poetry’ by John Carey

Another book read with my English teacher hat on and one that helped me brush up my poetry knowledge. This book was published in April 2020.

As an English Literature graduate turned English teacher, I have ploughed through a fair amount of poetry in my time.  It's not my favourite form (I prefer a good novel) but I do have my favourite poems and writers that I return to frequently.  I hoped this book would contextualise them and perhaps give me some new avenues to explore.

I think it needs pointing out that this is a slightly odd idea for a book - a potted history of poetry that is accessible for the novice reader yet detailed enough to draw in more seasoned poetry readers (who you would expect would be the main readership for the book as people already receptive to poetry).  However, I think Carey has managed this well; the book covers a vast amount of ground, managing to fit in synopses, biography and context for a range of poems and poetry movements.  For me, it brought back memories of my undergraduate study - some good (it's always nice to revisit Larkin, Keats and Plath) and some less so (I hoped I'd heard the last of Piers Plowman, to be honest!)

The other strange thing about the book is that it can never be a totally objective history of poetry as it seems to promise - it's always going to include Carey's personal choices and preferences and I didn't agree with all his interpretations fully.  I absolutely bow down to him as being the expert, but I do think poetry is very subjective and open to personal readings, although it was interesting to hear about his take on poems that I know very well.  Carey's own preferences seemed most obvious in the amount of space allocated to individual poets - some were skimmed over in very little detail while others were explored in perhaps excessive depth (Yeats, I'm looking at you...)

Overall, I'd say this was a lovely book to use to contextualise your understanding of poets and their works - I certainly didn't realise that some of the poets were contemporaries or quite so closely linked.  The biographies are interesting and Carey is a knowledgeable and lively guide through the history of poetry.  It won't give you depth of understanding if you are already studying poems or poetic movements at a high level, but it's an accessible and entertaining read for those of us whose knowledge is perhaps a bit rusty!

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

Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst

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

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