Erica

LATEST ARTICLES ( 397 )

• Sleeveless Errand (1929) by Norah C James

  

  Book review by Sylvia D: For the Reading Groups Second World War session, I read Enduring Adventure by Norah C James (1896-1979), a novel about the impact of th... Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2019 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Compulsory Husband (1928), by John Glyder

  

  By Janice Maskort and Val Hewson ‘John who?’ we said at Reading 1900-1950, where we think we know our popular 20th century writers. John Glyder came to notice... Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2019 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Summer Will Show (1936) by Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Book Review by George S: Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes (1926) is about a woman leaving an ordinary environment and developing in extraordinary ways... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2019 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Book Review by Sylvia D: Lolly Willowes or The Loving Huntsman, by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) was her first successful novel, published in 1926 when... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2019 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) by Sax Rohmer

  In 1936, fifteen-year old Mary Wilkinson began to keep a record of her reading, and continued it for several years. This month members of the Reading Group... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2019 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Across the Black Waters (1939) by Mulk Raj Anand

  

  Book Review by George S: Across the Black Waters is the second volume in a trilogy by Mulk Raj Anand. The other volumes are: The Village, which describes the... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Passing (1929), by Nella Larsen

  

  For December 2018, we looked at novels by Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) writers working between 1900 and 1950. I read Passing by the American author Nella... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Castle Gay (1930) by John Buchan

  

  Cover of the first edition (1930) Book Review by George S: Castle Gay is the second of John Buchan’s Dickson McCunn novels. The first was Huntingtower (1921)... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Hatter’s Castle (1931) by A J Cronin

  

  Book Review by Sylvia D: I decided to read Hatter’s Castle for the Scottish and Welsh session, because, apart from the treatment of its women characters,... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Blue Danube (1943) by Eunice Buckley

  Book review by George S: Blue Danube is the third novel to appear under the name of Eunice Buckley, but its author had written other books and plays before,... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2018 BOOKS, CULTURE

• 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