Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 427 )

• First the Blade (1918) by Clemence Dane

  

  Clemence Dane Book Review by Sylvia D. First the Blade: A Comedy of Growth,  a coming of age novel and an unresolved love story, was Clemence Dane’s second... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Enter Sir John (1929) by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson

  

  Enter Sir John is a detective story. It’s a book I’ve mildly wanted to read for many years, ever since seeing Murder!, the slightly odd 1930 film that Alfred... Read more

  Posted on 24 September 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Miss Bunting (1945) by Angela Thirkell

  (published by Hamish Hamilton) Book review by Hilary Temple. Jane Austen notoriously ‘didn’t mention the war’ in her novels according to some critics – though... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Caroline Terrace (1955) by Warwick Deeping

  Book review by Frances S. Warwick Deeping died in 1950. Caroline Terrace was published posthumously in 1955. Having known Deeping only by repute as a formerly... Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Woman of Knockaloe (1923) by Hall Caine

  

  Review by George S: This novel comes with two forewords, one by Newman Flower, the head of Cassell’s publishing house, and one by the author. Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• All Things Betray Thee (1949) by Gwyn Thomas

  Book Review by Sylvia D. Gwyn Thomas (1913-1981)is one of Wales’s great literary figures. He was born in the Rhondda and won a scholarship to read Spanish at... Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Cheerfulness Breaks In (1940) by Angela Thirkell

  Book review by Hilary Temple. (Published by Hamish Hamilton) Cheerfulness Breaks In might seem an odd title for a novel dealing with the outbreak of WWII. Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James M. Cain

  Book Review by Sylvia D: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) was James M. Cain’s first published novel. Cain (1882-1977) was initially a journalist and an... Read more

  Posted on 19 May 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sally’s in the Alley by Norbert Davis (1943)

  

  Book Review by George S: Norbert Davis was an American author of detective fiction. I first heard of him when I was reading about Ludwig Wittgenstein’s taste... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• I Find Four People (1935) by Pamela Frankau

  Book Review by George S: This is Pamela Frankau’s autobiography, a version of her life so far, published in 1935, when she was twenty-seven. (I read a Penguin... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• New Walter Greenwood Site

  Dear Reading 1900-1950 colleagues, Having posted my review of Greenwood’s memoir There Was a Time (1967) – and thus broken every rule about this blog’s... Read more

  Posted on 31 March 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• There Was a Time (1967) by Walter Greenwood

  Book review by Chris Hopkins. Strictly speaking There Was a Time is a memoir and not a novel and so perhaps should not properly be reviewed here (and moreover i... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Love Among the Ruins (1948) by Angela Thirkell

  Book Review by George S: Love Among the Ruins is a depiction of upper-class and upper-middle class families in rural England a couple of years after the second... Read more

  Posted on 19 March 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• John Strachey, Digging for Mrs Miller (1941)

  This review on the Neglected Books site looks of interest for us: Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1926) by Anita Loos

  

  Book Review by Chris Hopkins. I had to read Gentlemen Prefer Blondes because I started reading what I suspected was a parody of it, but couldn’t be sure... Read more

  Posted on 03 March 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Skylighters (1934) by J.B. Morton

  Book review by George S: Skylighters is a light comedy about a trio of swindlers who reckon they can make money by starting a new religion. It is by J.B. Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• 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