Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 391 )

• The Amazing Summer (1941) by Philip Gibbs

  Review by Sylvia D: Philip Gibbs’ The Amazing Summer (1941) is a good example of his journalistic novel-writing, set as it is against a backdrop of the hot and... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Second Review of Joy and Josephine by Monica Dickens (1948)

  Book Review by Jane V. The book opens with a kind of prologue. An Irish girl puts her crucifix in the folds of a newborn baby’s blanket and leaves the child in ... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Reckless Lady by Philip Gibbs (Published October 1924 by Hutchinson and Co)

  Book Review by Kath R. Philip Gibbs’ Wikipedia entry details his career as a war correspondent during the First World War and his reluctance to censor his... Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Winding Lane (1931) by Philip Gibbs

  

  Philip Gibbs’s books have been described as ‘newsreel novels’. Typically they take a topic from the headlines and build a story round it. Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood (1933)

  Walter Greenwood, Love on the Dole (1933) Book review by Chris Hopkins. Having now posted blogs about most of Walter Greenwood’s fiction, I realise that these... Read more

  Posted on 12 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Of Love and Hunger (1942) by Julian Maclaren-Ross

  

  This 1942 novel by J. Maclaren-Ross draws extensively on the author’s experience as a vacuum-cleaner salesman before the war. It is the story of Fanshawe, a... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Greater Trumps (1932) by Charles Williams. In Memory of Thecla – Reading...

  

  Book Review by Chris Hopkins. I remember reading Charles Williams’ novel The Place of the Lion (1931) at school in the 1970s, at the suggestion of my friend... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Trelooe Trilogy by Walter Greenwood [So Brief the Spring (1952), What...

  

  Book review posted by Chris Hopkins (the review is slightly longer than usual – it seemed best to review the whole trilogy in one post). Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Secret Kingdom (1938) by Walter Greenwood

  

  Book review by Chris Hopkins. Walter Greenwood’s father was a hairdresser and by the time he married Elizabeth Matilda Walter he had opened his own hairdresser’... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• His Worship the Mayor (1935) by Walter Greenwood

  

  Book review posted by Chris Hopkins. In 1934, after the success of his first novel, Love on the Dole, was becoming apparent, Greenwood stood (for the second... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Walter Greenwood, Standing Room Only (1936)

  

  Book Review posted by Chris Hopkins. Walter Greenwood is best remembered (indeed often only remembered) for his first novel, Love on the Dole (1933). Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Bird in the Tree (1940) by Elizabeth Goudge

  

  Book Review by George S: This is the first volume of a trilogy about the Eliot family, set in the autumn of 1938, just a few years before the book was... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• One Pair of Feet (1942) by Monica Dickens

  

  Book Review by George S: One Pair of Feet is Monica Dickens’ 1942 fictionalised memoir of her time as a hospital nurse during the early years of the second worl... Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Joy and Josephine (1948) by Monica Dickens

  

  Book review by Sylvia D: What a shock it must be suddenly to discover in your teens that the people you thought were your parents are only your adoptive parents. Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Event on Famous British Authors of 1937 Wills Cigarette Cards Series

  

  Four Bestsellers Lost and Found images On the afternoon of Saturday 18th November 2017, we will be holding an event at Sheffield Hallam University to explore wh... Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Rector’s Daughter (1924) by F. M. Mayor

  

  Book review by George S: The first sentence of this book sets an unromantic tone: Dedmayne is an insignificant village in the Eastern counties. Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Mrs Frensham Describes a Circle (1943) by Richmal Crompton

  

  Book review by George S: Mrs Frensham Describes a Circle is about an extended family in an English country town during the Blitz. Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Poor Caroline (1931) by Winifred Holtby

  

  Book review by Sylvia D:  Poor Caroline is a satire in which Holtby pokes fun at the worlds of philanthropy and religion but also introduces other themes: the... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Vanity Girl (1920) by Compton Mackenzie

  

  Book review by Sylvia D: When Compton Mackenzie’s The Vanity Girl (the copy I read being the Remploy reprint of 1973) was first published in 1920 by Macdonald,... Read more

  Posted on 28 May 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Gallipoli Memories (1929) by Compton Mackenzie

  

  Book Review by George S. We’ve been reading fiction by Compton Mackenzie this month, but I deviated from the brief slightly by reading an example of his... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2017 BOOKS, CULTURE