Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 415 )

• Swan Song (1928) by John Galsworthy

  

  Book Review by George Simmers: Another General Strike novel. Swan Song is the sixth novel in the Forsyte Saga, and the last of the second trilogy ‘A Modern... Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Young Anarchy (1926) by Philip Gibbs

  

  Book Review by George Simmers: Philip Gibbs was the most topical of twenties novelists. The General Strike put the country at a standstill in June 1926, and in... Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• My Days: A Memoir (1974) by R.K. Narayan

  

  Book review by Sue Roe: I hesitate to say this but I had never heard of Narayan. He was a well-known (if not to me!) Tamil Hindu, a writer of over 200 novels, a... Read more

  Posted on 01 October 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• What We Read Last Year – and What We Are Reading Next Year

  I promised I would post up last year’s reading list. However, when I looked at the Reading Group Topics by Year page I realised that it was a couple of years ou... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Death at the President’s Lodging (1936) by Michael Innes

  

  Book Review by Val H: This review is free of spoilers. All quotations from the novel are taken from the green Penguin edition of 1958. Oh, I read a lot of... Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Cavalry Went Through (1930) by Bernard Newman

  

  Book review by George S: This is an unusual novel, since it imagines a counterfactual history. It gives us an alternative version of the Great War – which it... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Black Mischief (1932) by Evelyn Waugh

  

  Book review by George Simmers: I hadn’t read Black Mischief since I was a teenager, when I remember enjoying it heartily. Since then it is a book that has... Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Buried Alive (1908) by Arnold Bennett

  

  Book Review by George S: Buried Alive is a novel based on a premise that is ridiculously unlikely. The novel’s anti-hero is Priam Farll, a celebrated painter wh... Read more

  Posted on 19 May 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Eternity Ring (1950) by Patricia Wentworth

  

  Book review by George Simmers: Eternity Ring is the fourteenth of Patricia Wentworth’s thirty two ‘Miss Silver novels’. I’ve seen Miss Silver is sometimes... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Turmoil (1915) by Booth Tarkington

  

  Book Review by George S: The Turmoil is the first in Booth Tarkington’s ‘Change’ trilogy. The three books are not connected by common characters, but by their... Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Ariadne and the Bull (1945) by Eleanor Farjeon

  

  Book Review by Kathryn Rangeley: I chose this book thinking it would be for children. My knowledge of the author came from my childhood when I knew her as a poe... Read more

  Posted on 10 March 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Ides of March (1948) by Thornton Wilder

  

  Book Review by George S: In the foreword to The Ides of March, Thornton Wilder admits to taking liberties with historical chronology. Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Death Comes as the End (1944), by Agatha Christie

  

  Book Review by Val Hewson: ‘My dear mother,’ Imhotep looked at her in horror. ‘This is not a jest.’ ‘All life is a jest, Imhotep – and it is death who laughs... Read more

  Posted on 24 February 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Last and First Men (1930) by Olaf Stapledon

  

  Book review by Alison B: Last and First Men was Olaf Stapledon’s first published work of fiction. It is a hugely ambitious and wide ranging imaginary account... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1925) by John Erskine

  

  This is a very peculiar book. It is almost all dialogue and almost all set in one place – Menelaus’s house in Sparta. Everything that happens during the course... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sirius (1944) by Olaf Stapledon

  

  Book Review by Jane V: I came to Sirius for the first time many years ago, when a late teenager but my memory had wrongly attributed the novel to John Wyndham. Read more

  Posted on 09 February 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Last Men in London (1932) by Olaf Stapledon

  

  Book Review by George Simmers: In my twelve years as a member of the Popular Fiction Reading Group, I have never yet given up on a book, though I nearly did... Read more

  Posted on 26 January 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Death at the Opera (1934) by Gladys Mitchell

  

  Book review by George S: Death at the Opera is Gladys Mitchell’s fifth novel featuring Mrs Bradley, her ferocious reptilian detective. Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2025 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Pirates at Play (1950) by Violet Trefusis

  

  Review by Frances S: Violet Trefusis, (1894-1972), was the daughter of Alice Keppel, wife of George Keppel, a son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle. Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Dope-Darling – A Story of Cocaine(1919) by Leda Burke (David Garnett)

  

  Book Review by George S: David Garnett was one of the younger members of the Bloomsbury set. His father was Edward Garnett, the critic and publisher, and his... Read more

  Posted on 17 November 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE