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This is a superb yet enigmatic novel, possibly more heart rending and thought provoking than any novel I have read for a long time. I'll have to be clear right at the onset that this novel isn't science fiction so I'll make it clear right now there could be some SPOILERS in this short review. It...

Nowadays there are attempts to bring science to the masses by "dumbing down" - I suppose this is the 19th century equivalent. Science brought to the masses in a form to thrill and entertain as well as educate. Written in 1869 its really a book about sea life and its creatures with a thin back...

I was impressed by the quality of this novel for teenagers; it has won several awards including the Children's Book Award. I saw it recommended and with its unusual and provocative storyline I thought it would be good for my teenage daughter, She read it very quickly and pressed me to read it as...

William Golding: The Lord Of The Flies Another well known classic here from 1954, known to many from school, I did this at school too and remembered the basic premise of the story and the key points but had really forgotten or not really noticed the power and quality of both the writing and the...

I read this 25yrs ago and had quite forgotten it – except of course the main theme of book burning and that the 451F’ is the temperature at which books burn. I was delighted therefore to revisit this superb 1954 classic, it really was superb and chillingly real – probably more so now than 25yrs...

I haven't read any other Theroux though many have said to me that his non fiction travel books are superb. I really didn't enjoy this novel though.

I found this 1978 Whitbread dull and un-engaging to read with insipid characters that don’t engage with the reader on any level. Written from the perspective of a woman photographer in her old age it goes back and forwards through her life but frankly makes little sense. It’s written in short...

This was a highly entertaining if not a little risqué novel featuring the twin issues of Sex and Religion, this the 1980 Whitbread Best Novel for David Lodge is the first novel by this well known author I have read. When I said risqué I meant it, as the first part of the novel is undoubtedly...

This was quite an unusual read set over several generations from Africa to New Orleans from Harlem to London. Not so uncommon nowadays is the idea of generations intertwining over a couple of centuries with a thread running between them that they don't know about but then find out after a...

Small Island by Andrea Levy Outstanding is how I would describe the double award winning novel - The Orange Prize 2004 and the Whitbread Best Novel 2004 - these awards alone don't a good book make but this novel is superb in so many areas. Superb characterisation, brilliant description...

Try as I might I couldn't fathom this novel at all, a strange blend of love triangle and weird Victorian ideas on mediaeval Alchemy. I thought Alchemy was the attempts to turn base metal into gold usually by men in pointy hats and long white beards. Obviously I'm wrong as it is actually trying...

This was a strange read – not at all what I was expecting, at least in that as I read it I was thinking it was going one way when it was going another. The 1994 Whitbread winner it’s a short read but quite highly charged. Its also impossible I think, for me to write any kind of basic review...

Very good indeed is how I would describe this 1999 Whitbread Best First Novel - gripping dialogue really coming to grips with the mans perspective of life and friendship. Not at all just a "lads" book, but a real and conclusive attempt to get inside the psyche of the modern "bloke". The main...

This is a very ambitious, funny and thought-provoking novel that won Zadie Smith a much-deserved Whitbread First Novel prize in 2000. I had read some mixed reviews some time ago but approached this with an open mind and was really quite delighted with this humorous approach to race, religion...

When is a biography not a biography but a novel based on a life's work and correspondence? When it’s a brilliant novel by Colm Toibin - its really a great thing to do , base a novel on the life of a great writer , Henry James , use a lot of his own letters and correspondence and try to get...

This is a superbly powerful story set in Nelson Mandela's new post apartheid South Africa, short listed for the 2004 Booker prize. A really gripping and in places disturbing read it is a no holds barred look at South Africa (SA) from the townships and from the ruling party workers point of view...

I really don't know where to start when trying to give a really honest review of a novel that tries so hard to break with traditional novel structure. A novel that combines historical with Sci-Fi , crime thriller with modern urban black humour. For this and this alone David Mitchell's Booker...

Got a tattoo? I haven't but I know a lot who have though I wouldn't have thought it was a subject for a Booker Shortlist novel. However it is here and Sarah Hall manages to pull it off quite well. From the seaside of 1920's Morecambe to the late 30's Coney Island in Brooklyn New York. We begin...

Its well worth a look - I suppose it'll be out in paperback in the spring , its an expensive hardback.

It would be hard to imagine a novel about the destruction that alcohol can do to a family being other than unremittingly bleak, however this novel by Gerald Woodward - short listed for the Booker - manages to be engaging and thought provoking indeed. The subject matter of Alcohol and...