Monthly Archives: May 2011

David Mitchell, Black Swan Green

The first book I remember being given by anyone outside my immediate family was an end-of-year prize awarded by the local Sunday school – Enid Blyton’s The Land of Far Beyond. I was six years old and the prize was for attendance rather than … Continue reading

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Niall Griffiths, Ten Pound Pom

One of my father’s brothers lived in Perth. He came back to the UK when I was a child, with his Australian-born wife, to visit. He was a brash, arrogant man who thought that the Lambert family – or his … Continue reading

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Steve Hely, How I Became a Famous Novelist

What made me buy this? A good review in a broadsheet a month or so ago? The author’s credentials as writer for David Letterman and The (American) Office ? Or the sneaking, inadequately suppressed and probably best not shared suspicion that it … Continue reading

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