Category Archives: Melissa Harrison

Year end book binge.

Posted on November 28, 2021 by wordsandpictures2016

I was trying so hard too…but suddenly, as if by magic, a glut of books arrived which couldn’t be refused. Binge – Douglas Coupland A curious one, this. Douglas Coupland, acclaimed author and artist produces a collection of 60 ‘stories … Continue reading →

Posted in Brontez Purnell, Douglas Coupland, Elspeth Barker, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Isabel Waidner, Melissa Harrison, Patricia Highsmith, Sarah Moss, Zadie Smith | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

beautiful books 24

Posted on June 5, 2021 by wordsandpictures2016

Or, sometimes you can judge a book by its cover Wild Flowers by Paxton Chadwick Puffin Picture book 81 I love beautiful books, with the ultimate expression of my love being my collection of Puffin books: principally from the 1940s … Continue reading →

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may bookhaul

Posted on May 31, 2021 by wordsandpictures2016

So, May was supposed to be a quite month on the book-buying front, but it didn’t quite turn out like that and there’s still one more I need to get my greedy mitts on (‘What Artists Wear’ by Charlie Porter)! … Continue reading →

Posted in Blair James, David Annand, James Clammer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Leon Hunt, Melissa Harrison, Paxton Chadwick, Rachel Cusk | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

2020 – a year in books

Posted on December 31, 2020 by wordsandpictures2016

To say it’s been a strange year would be putting it mildly. When I think back to January 2020, with all the plans and hopes for the new year, it seems like an eternity ago. Another life, another place of … Continue reading →

Posted in Adam Mars-Jones, Ali Smith, Barry Lewis, Douglas Stuart, Evie Wyld, Frances Leviston, Kate Charlesworth, Kiley Reid, Maggie O'Farrell, Melissa Harrison, Ottessa Moshfegh, Paul Mendez, Sean Hogan | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Brighter Future…

Posted on December 15, 2020 by wordsandpictures2016

Without a doubt 2020 has been a swine of a year and, in the UK, we still have the horrors of Brexit to come…but in an attempt to think positively, I thought I would look forward to next year and … Continue reading →

Posted in Claire Louise Bennett, Deborah Levy, Gwendoline Riley, Jon McGregor, Kazuo Ishiguro, Max Porter, Melissa Harrison, Tracey Thorn | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Upside of Underneath

Posted on December 5, 2020 by wordsandpictures2016

The picture above is of Billingham, in the North East of England. Not exactly a ‘New Town’, it expanded greatly in the 1950s and 1960s in order to house the workers for the nearby ICI complex. As a child of … Continue reading →

Posted in Gareth E Rees, Glen James Brown, Melissa Harrison | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A book haul for November

Posted on November 28, 2020 by wordsandpictures2016

‘The Real Stanley Baxter’ by Brian Beacom. I can remember watching Stanley Baxter on television but always at a distance – for some reason he never really struck a chord. However this, his authorised biography has caused a bit of … Continue reading →

Posted in Brian Beacom, Jonathan Coe, Melissa Harrison, Will Maclean | Leave a comment

Books of the Year 2018

Posted on January 2, 2019 by wordsandpictures2016

‘Strange, sinister, funny and profound, ‘Convenience Store Woman’ by Sayaka Murata is a compendium of the rules of society and how these might be navigated by someone who, rather than rebelling against those norms, simply doesn’t understand them – a … Continue reading →

Posted in Camille Paglia, Christine Burns, David Park, Deborah Levy, Edouard Louis, Elizabeth von Arnim, Glen James Brown, Jonathan Coe, Joseph Cassara, Melissa Harrison, Rachel Cusk, Sally Rooney, Sayaka Murata | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

All Among The Barley – Melissa Harrison

Posted on November 18, 2018 by wordsandpictures2016

‘Deutsche Erde’ (‘German Soil’) by Werner Peiner (1933) ‘But at last I came to see that there is a danger in such thinking; for you can never go back, and to make an idol of the past only disfigures the … Continue reading →

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‘Reservoir 13’ Jon McGregor

Posted on May 16, 2017 by wordsandpictures2016

Jon McGregor’s fourth novel present us with a panoramic presentation of life in the here and now. It is a stylistic dream, immersing the reader in what is the literary equivalent of 3D cinema. It is soap opera (not a dirty phrase in … Continue reading →

Posted in Ali Smith, Jon McGregor, Melissa Harrison, Virginia Woolf | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments