Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 397 )

• Mr Bunting In the Promised Land by Robert Greenwood (1949)

  

  Turning its focus to post-war England and the shape of things to come, this ‘sequel’ to Mr Bunting Goes to War (1941) retains traces of the wry humour which... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Cleft Stick (1937) by Walter Greenwood

  

  Review by Sylvia D: The Cleft Stick is a collection of 15 short stories. Although the book wasn’t published until 1937, all but two of the stories were written... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Only Mugs Work (1938) by Walter Greenwood

  

  Book Review by George S: Only Mugs Work is subtitled ‘A Soho Melodrama’, so Walter Greenwood is a long way from the Salford of Love on the Dole. Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Death Goes on Skis by Nancy Spain (1949)

  The writer, journalist and broadcaster, Nancy Spain, published several comic detective stories between 1945 and 1952, of which this is the fourth. Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Pomfret Towers (1938) by Angela Thirkell

  

  This is a comic novel about a group of families in Barsetshire – the imaginary county that Angela Thirkell took over from Anthony Trollope. Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Whicharts (1931) by Noel Streatfeild

  

  Book review by George S: I should probably start this review with a trigger warning. It may cause disquiet and consternation to anyone for whom Ballet Shoes... Read more

  Posted on 17 May 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Odyssey of Euphemia Tracy by Richmal Crompton (1932)

  

  Euphemia is by no means a conventional romantic heroine. She is a ‘large, heavy-featured young woman’, ungainly and dressed in badly-fitting clothes which she... Read more

  Posted on 15 May 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Narcissa (1941), by Richmal Crompton

  

  This month we read adult novels by authors better known as writers for children. Richmal Crompton, by Bassano, vintage print, circa 1930 (National Portrait... Read more

  Posted on 13 May 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Unready Heart by Richard Sherman (1944)

  

  Not a writer readily associated with depictions of wartime London (or indeed with longer fiction), Sherman ‘s short novel focuses on the plight of one Barbara... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Four-Part Setting by Ann Bridge (1939)

  

  This novel is set in China in the late 1920s and has a plot similar to that of Ann Bridge’s first novel, Peking Picnic. A small group from the European colony i... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) by Ernest Bramah

  

  Cover of the 1923 reprint Book Review by George S. This month we are reading Imperial fiction set in the Far East. My selection only fits a very broad... Read more

  Posted on 13 April 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Mr Bunting Goes to War by Robert Greenwood (1941)

  

  Greenwood’s irony-laden tale of the ‘little man’ in time of war (and successor to the well-received Mr Bunting (1940)) shows clear shades of the likes of Mr... Read more

  Posted on 10 April 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Ann Veronica, by H G Wells (1909)

  

  Spoiler alert.   Oh, Ann Veronica, Ann Veronica!  You had me, growing up in the 1970s, from the start.  I sympathised with your yearning for independence and... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Enduring Adventure by Norah C. James (1944)

  

  This novel (by the author of the earlier and better known Sleeveless Errand) supplies a lucid account of life on the home front, and in particular the experienc... Read more

  Posted on 29 March 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Delia Blanchflower by Mrs Humphry Ward (1915)

  

  Mary Ward was a bestselling novelist of the late Victorian period, but was regarded as a little old fashioned by the time this novel was written. Read more

  Posted on 20 March 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Suffragette Sally (1911) by Gertrude Colmore

  

  Book Review by Sylvia D: Gertrude Colmore (1855-1926) finished writing Suffragette Sally in February 1911 at the height of the women’s militant suffrage... Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Squad Goes Out by Robert Greenwood (1943)

  

  This novel (whose author is perhaps better known as the author of the slightly earlier ‘Mr Bunting’ novels) centres on the work of a voluntary ambulance squad... Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Lion’s Share (1916) by Arnold Bennett

  

  Book Review by George S: In 1915 Arnold Bennett commented in his journal about The Lion’s Share, which he had just begun to write: The novel is light and of... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult (1946)

  

  This is by turns a moving and unsettling tale of an elderly woman, Claire Temple – once a revered literary hostess and author – now facing the onset of... Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• When the Bells Rang: A Tale of What Might Have Been by Anthony Armstrong and...

  

  As the subheading suggests, this quasi-dystopian story of an imagined German invasion of England during the early part of the Second World War clearly would hav... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE