Lies, damned lies and novels
Stories are part of what makes us human because part of being human is the habit, good or bad, of telling lies.
Shakespeare and the modern novel
Shakespeare must have read anything and everything that came his way, not just the sources for his plays, which are well known, not just the classical authors who, if Ben … Continue reading
An odd kind of novel
I can’t help thinking that, if any other country had in its recent literary history a writer as distinctive and original as T.F.Powys, they would make more of him. They … Continue reading
Modern literature’s debt to Mary Shelley
To have invented one literary genre is a remarkable enough achievement, to have invented two is almost beyond belief, which is perhaps why Mary Shelley’s second achievement has been largely … Continue reading
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is best known as a film starring Jane Fonda, but that was in 1969 by which time the novel by Horace McCoy had been in … Continue reading
Alfred Jarry
Most people know Alfred Jarry, if they know him at all, as the author of Ubu Roi. But he also wrote novels and once made a guest appearance in a … Continue reading
Neil Rathmell - writer 