Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 427 )

• 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

• 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