Category Archives: Zadie Smith

something to look forward to

Posted on January 8, 2023 by wordsandpictures2016

As the year draws to a tired and exhausted close its time to draw a line under what has gone (and, let’s be honest, this year is one which few of us would want to repeat) and turn our hopeful … Continue reading →

Posted in Brandon Taylor, Deborah Levy, Emma Flint, Gwendoline Riley, Han Kang, Hugo Greenhlagh, Jeanette Winterson, Max Porter, Nicole Flattery, Philip Hensher, Tom Crewe, Zadie Smith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

A HUGE August Book Haul, plus holiday reading

Posted on August 9, 2020 by wordsandpictures2016

A Book Haul Finally – charity shops are open again! Hurrah! My first charity purchase in many months is an old classic, a lovely first edition of Derek Jarman’s angry memoir-cum-polemic ‘At Your Own Risk’. (1992). In it he touches … Continue reading →

Posted in Ali Smith, Andrew O'Hagan, Benjamin Myers, Brandon Taylor, Derek Jarman, Douglas Stuart, Emily St John Mandel, Giorgio Bassani, Lucy Atkins, nell dunn, Ottessa Moshfegh, Sarah Moss, Sophie Ward, Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Zadie Smith | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

My favourite books of the 21st century, so far…

Posted on October 26, 2019 by wordsandpictures2016

  Recently ‘The Guardian’ published a list of the ‘best’ books of the twenty first century so far. It got me to thinking and so here I present my own list. They may not be acknowledged ‘classics’ (though some are) … Continue reading →

Posted in Alan Warner, Alexandra Harris, Ali Smith, Andrew O'Hagan, Camille Paglia, Claire Louise Bennett, Cristina Sanchez-Andrade, Elain Harwood, Garry Mulholland, Gwendoline Riley, Hallie Rubenhold, Han Kang, Jill Gardiner, John Grindrod, Julie Peakman, Kate Atkinson, Maggie Nelson, Michelle Paver, Nigella Lawson, Ottessa Moshfegh, Owen Hatherley, Philip Hensher, Sarah Waters, Shena Mackay, Zadie Smith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This week’s book haul

Posted on October 5, 2019 by wordsandpictures2016

Firstly this week, a beautiful book by a writer I have never read before: Edna O’Brien. I love the 1950s style cover for a book which has had great reviews, and comes with a warning about the harrowing nature of … Continue reading →

Posted in Diana Souhami, Edna O'Brien, Kate Bornstein, Molly Ringwald, Philippe Besson, Zadie Smith | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pant-wetting excitements

Posted on January 20, 2019 by wordsandpictures2016

It is cold and dark and wet and Britain seems hell bent on self destruction so I’m going to try to cheer myself up my thinking about some of the literary treats we have in the months ahead. Lanny by … Continue reading →

Posted in Ali Smith, Edouard Louis, Ian Sansom, Jeanette Winterson, Mark Haddon, Max Porter, Michelle Paver, Tracey Thorn, Zadie Smith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

London

Posted on June 2, 2018 by wordsandpictures2016

My latest obsession is Tracey Thorn’s new album, ‘Record’, which contains amongst all the other gems, a song called ‘Smoke’ in which Tracey talk about her attachment to and feelings about London: ‘London you’re in my blood And you’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthony Simmons, Derek Jarman, Geoffrey Fletcher, Judith R Walkowitz, Maureen Duffy, Michael Collins, nell dunn, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith | 2 Comments

‘Travelling in a Strange Land’ David Park

Posted on April 10, 2018 by wordsandpictures2016

Sometimes, I think you can tell the mettle of a writer not by the first lines of their novels but the last. Take Zadie Smith’s ‘Swing Time’ (not her best novel, of course, but no one can doubt her talent) … Continue reading →

Posted in Ali Smith, David Park, Zadie Smith | Tagged , | 1 Comment

This week’s book haul

Posted on August 12, 2017 by wordsandpictures2016

Just the one book this week – and something from the Booker Prize longlist: ‘Elmet’ by Fiona Mozley. This year’s longlist is a bit of an odd one. Of the books I’ve read only one deserves to be there: ‘Reservoir … Continue reading →

Posted in Ali Smith, Fiona Mozley, Gwendoline Riley, Jon McGregor, Zadie Smith | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Swing Time – Zadie Smith

Posted on January 15, 2017 by wordsandpictures2016

‘It was the first day of my humiliation. Put on a plane, sent back home, to England, set up with a temporary rental in St. John’s Wood.’ In her London exile, our narrator remembers her childhood obsession with dance and musicals, … Continue reading →

Posted in Zadie Smith | 1 Comment