Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 397 )

• Woodsmoke by Francis Brett Young (1924)

  

  Woodsmoke, Young’s tenth novel, is set in East Africa, where he served during the First World War. The prologue and epilogue are set then while the main story... Read more

  Posted on 14 February 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The African Queen (1935), by C S Forester

  

  The African Queen is a ripping yarn (one reason, by the way, for the success of the 1951 film).  Two ill-suited people struggle against incredible odds on an... Read more

  Posted on 10 February 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sanders of the River (1911) by Edgar Wallace

  

  Book review by George Simmers. This book is made up of fourteen short stories, originally published in the penny magazine, The Weekly Tale-Teller. Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Turning Wheels (1937) by Stuart Cloete

  

  Book Review by Sylvia D. Between 1835 and the early 1840s some twelve to fourteen thousand Boers (Dutch/Afrikaans for “farmers”) who were descended from settler... Read more

  Posted on 04 February 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Green for Danger (1945) by Christianna Brand

  

  Seven letters.  Old Mr Moon and young Dr Barnes, and Gervase Eden, surgeon, of Harley Street; Sister Marion Bates; Jane Woods and Esther Sanson and Frederica... Read more

  Posted on 14 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sister Anne Resigns (1931) by Josephine Elder

  

  Book review by George Simmers: Josephine Elder is a pseudonym of Dr Olive Potter (1895 – 1988), one of the first female doctors to be trained at the London... Read more

  Posted on 13 January 2016 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Aflame with Love and Revolt – Bhowani Junction (1954)

  

  I came across Bhowani Junction years ago, in the shape of the spectacular 1956 MGM film starring Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger and directed by George Cukor. Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Uninvited Guests by Parr Cooper (1946)

  

  This interesting novel is set around 1943/44 in a small settlement in rural India, which is dominated by an Army training camp. Read more

  Posted on 15 November 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• King of the Khyber Rifles (1916) by Talbot Mundy

  

  Book review by George Simmers: The opening paragraphs tell us what to expect: The men who govern India—more power to them and her!—are few. Read more

  Posted on 03 November 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Police at the Funeral (1931) by Margery Allingham

  

  Book review by Sylvia D. My Queen of Crime novel was Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham (pub 1931 by Heinemann. My edition is a Penguin Classic Crime... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Speedy Death (1929) by Gladys Mitchell

  Book Review by George S: Speedy Death was Gladys Mitchell’s first detective novel. It introduces Mrs Bradley, her psychoanalyst detective, who would go on to... Read more

  Posted on 15 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Josephine Tey and the Psychological Detective Story (The Franchise Affair)

  

  By Val Hewson Josephine Tey (1896-1952), who wrote The Franchise Affair (1948) and seven other detective stories between 1929 and 1952, is not one of the... Read more

  Posted on 14 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Deed Without a Name by Dorothy Bowers (1940)

  

  I’m not sure if Dorothy Bowers quite counts as a Queen of Crime (our topic for this month), though I would like to think so. Her novels were highly thought of a... Read more

  Posted on 12 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• ‘Vivandière’ (1929) by Phoebe Fenwick Gaye

  

  Phoebe Fenwick Gaye (1905-2001) Book Review by Sylvia D. Reading Group members may remember the delightful poem by Phoebe Fenwick Gaye that was circulated to... Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Lieutenant Hornblower (1952) by C.S. Forester

  

  Book review by Sylvia D. Lieutenant Hornblower was published by Michael Joseph in 1952 but I read the 1957 Great Pan paperback edition which has a very... Read more

  Posted on 11 August 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Westwood by Stella Gibbons

  Most people only know Stella Gibbons for writing Cold Comfort Farm, her first novel. But she went on to write more than 20 novels and Westwood, published in 194... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• C S Forester’s Hornblower and the Atropos (1953)

  

  Review by Val H: Boy’s Own Plus.  That’s Hornblower and the Atropos: an exploration of leadership within an exciting swashbuckler. The action takes place after... Read more

  Posted on 16 July 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Happy Return (1937) by C. S. Forester

  

  Review by George S. The Happy Return was the first of Forester’s Hornblower novels to be published, though later books would fill in the hero’s earlier career. Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Cloudless May by Storm Jameson

  

  Review by Sylvia D For our women writers and World Wars One and Two session I read Storm Jameson’s Cloudless May (Macmillan, 1943 and still in print) which is... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE

• High Wages (1930) by Dorothy Whipple

  

  Review by Sylvia D. High Wages is one of Dorothy Whipple’s early novels. It was first published in 1930 and was republished by Persephone in 2009 and the... Read more

  Posted on 10 June 2015 BOOKS, CULTURE