Published By: Macmillan
Publication Date: 22nd February 2018
Format: Paperback
I.S.B.N.: 97815098248
61
Price: £7.99
Continue reading “Review: ‘The Mother’s Secret’, by Clare Swatman”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Uni weeks one and two
Hey, I remembered when I got in from university this evening that I haven’t done my weekly update since I started back at university. I started back last week. It’s a long day, even though I only have one two-hour seminar. Trains and such stretch the day out. I discovered tonight that it only costs £4 to get a taxi from the station to my house. Since I’m in stupid amounts of pain right now, I was willing to pay out the money to get home quickly. I’ve got pins and needles in my left foot right now, so this is going to be quick.
Week one was an introductory seminar, we made mock-ups of A5 pamphlets and discussed the process of publishing. I got to do colouring in.
Today we covered experimental writing and read some of Richard Brautigen’s Trout Fishing in America then attempted to write something in the same vein. I didn’t do very well, but I’ll share them with you.
Task: Write a piece in the style of Richard Brautigan about Brayford Wharf:
The swan and the pasta plate
As I sat out one midwinter evening eating pasta on the wharf, a swan came along to join me. I thought he might like a taste, so I threw the plate to him.
It sank without a taste.
The waiter brought another. I had to try again, as the swan paddled on, lost in the gloom.
I hit her head.
The table rocked when I climbed aboard, the swan barged the chair.
The waiter brought another plate.
“I prefer bread.” The swan said as she turned away.
He really didn’t like the taste.
Food and Lego
Across the river there waits a warm pub with plates of food just for the dragon and I. Long travelling had worn us out and we couldn’t find the donkeys to carry us. Perhaps they’d gone to the beach without me? Where shall I put my bucket and spade. There’s an island in the middle, we could go and play there. Dragon and I found the bricks. Someone had played here before us, some barge child, bored. A little house and farm. Trees and cows and sheep. Lego pigs in Lego pig shit. I don’t want to go to Denmark thanks.
See, I told you they weren’t very good. I think I’m a bit too literal to do the sort of whimsical, experimental writing some of the others could do well.
Right, going to bed now. Pain is getting a bit much.
Night.
New Research Suggests Social Issues are Down to Neurotypicals more than Autistics
I have suspected this for some time, it ties in with the social model of disability, I think.
Picture by Joan M. Mas
Autism is seen, in popular representations, largely as a social and communication disorder. Formerly framed as stemming from an autistic lack of a “social instinct”, the current dominant idea is that something is deficient or missing in autistic social cognition. Often referred to as a cognitive deficit in “empathy” or “theory of mind”, much research on autistic social issues has focused on trying to clarify and detect this inside autistic brains and minds. The search for an elusive broken “theory of mind module” or “empathy mechanism” in the brain, and its ensuing cognitive manifestations, however, has led to conflicting results – with some scientists even concluding that autistic people feel too much empathy rather than too little.
Another view is that this is not simply an individual neuro-cognitive issue, but rather a wider social problem. Against the idea that autistic people have too much or…
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Bonus Review #5: ‘Victorian Policing’, by Gaynor Haliday
Published By: Pen & Sword History
Publication Date: 15th November 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9781526706126
Format: Paperback
Price: £10.50
Alex at Pen and Sword emailed me last November to see if I wanted to review this book. I had a long list of books to review so I’ve finally got round to it.
Blurb
What was life like for the Victorian bobby? Gaynor Haliday became fascinated with the history of the early police forces when researching the life of her great, great grandfather; a well-regarded, long-suffering Victorian police constable in Bradford. Although a citation claimed his style of policing was merely to cuff the offender round the ear and send him home, press reports of the time painted a much grimmer picture of life on the beat in the Victorian streets.
Handwritten Watch Committee minutes, historical newspapers and police records combine to reveal an account of how and why the various police forces were set up; the recruitment, training and expectations of the men, the issues and crimes they had to deal with, and the hostility they encountered from the people whose peace they were trying to keep.
Continue reading “Bonus Review #5: ‘Victorian Policing’, by Gaynor Haliday”
Bonus Review #4: ‘Primal Awareness’, by Rob Wildwood
Published By: Moon Books
Publication Date: 26th January 2018
Format: Paperback
I.S.B.N.: 9781785356568
Price: £9.99
Blurb
Focusing on the origins of Western culture and belief systems, from ancient agriculture to modern industry, from primitive religion to monotheism, Primal Awareness explains how we became separated from nature and how, throughout history, these belief systems and social models have imposed a life of servitude and hardship upon millions of people. It also illustrates how modern technology and the modern scientific world view are currently causing the destruction of our natural environment. How can we overcome this separation, and reconnect with nature and spirit once again?
Continue reading “Bonus Review #4: ‘Primal Awareness’, by Rob Wildwood”
Bonus Review # 3: ‘The Life of Henrietta Anne’, By Melanie Clegg
Published By: Pen & Sword
Publication Date: 25th September 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9781473893115
Format: Hardback
Price: £15.99
Blurb
Henrietta Anne Stuart, youngest child of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born in June 1644 in the besieged city of Exeter at the very height of the English Civil War. The hostilities had separated her parents and her mother was on the run from Parliamentary forces when she gave birth with only a few attendants on hand to give her support. Within just a few days she was on her way to the coast for a moonlit escape to her native France, leaving her infant daughter in the hands of trusted supporters. A few years later Henrietta Anne would herself be whisked, disguised as a boy, out of the country and reunited with her mother in France, where she remained for the rest of her life. Henrietta’s fortunes dramatically changed for the better when her brother Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. After being snubbed by her cousin Louis XIV, she would eventually marry his younger brother Philippe, Duc d’Orléans and quickly become one of the luminaries of the French court, although there was a dark side to her rise to power and popularity when she became embroiled in love affairs with her brother in law Louis and her husband’s former lover, the dashing Comte de Guiche, giving rise to several scandals and rumours about the true parentage of her three children. However, Henrietta Anne was much more than just a mere court butterfly, she also possessed considerable intelligence, wit and political acumen, which led to her being entrusted in 1670 with the delicate negotiations for the Secret Treaty between her brother Charles II and cousin Louis XIV, which ensured England’s support of France in their war against the Dutch.
Continue reading “Bonus Review # 3: ‘The Life of Henrietta Anne’, By Melanie Clegg”
Review: ‘White Bodies’, by Jane Robins
Published By: HQ
Publication Date: 28th December 2017
I.S.B.N.: 9780008217549
Format: Hardback
Price: £12.99
Blurb
Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless façade, not everything is as it seems.
Callie, Tilda’s unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix’s domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in clingfilm and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom rubbish. She knows about Felix’s uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister’s arms.
Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgement when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies—or was he murdered?
Bonus review number two
Published By: Pen & Sword History
Publication Date: 3rd October 2017
ISBN: 9781526712264
Format: Hardback
Price: £15.99
Blurb
Dickens and Christmas is an exploration of the 19th-century phenomenon that became the Christmas we know and love today – and of the writer who changed, forever, the ways in which it is celebrated. Charles Dickens was born in an age of great social change. He survived childhood poverty to become the most adored and influential man of his time. Throughout his life, he campaigned tirelessly for better social conditions, including by his most famous work, A Christmas Carol. He wrote this novella specifically to “strike a sledgehammer blow on behalf of the poor man’s child”, and it began the Victorians’ obsession with Christmas.
This new book, written by one of his direct descendants, explores not only Dickens’s most famous work, but also his all-too-often overlooked other Christmas novellas. It takes the readers through the seasonal short stories he wrote, for both adults and children, includes much-loved festive excerpts from his novels, uses contemporary newspaper clippings, and looks at Christmas writings by Dickens’ contemporaries. To give an even more personal insight, readers can discover how the Dickens family itself celebrated Christmas, through the eyes of Dickens’s unfinished autobiography, family letters, and his children’s memoirs.
In Victorian Britain, the celebration of Christmas lasted for 12 days, ending on 6 January, or Twelfth Night. Through Dickens and Christmas, readers will come to know what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in 1812, the year in which Dickens was born. They will journey through the Christmases Dickens enjoyed as a child and a young adult, through to the ways in which he and his family celebrated the festive season at the height of his fame. It also explores the ways in which his works have gone on to influence how the festive season is celebrated around the globe.
Extract: ‘Who Killed The Mince Spy?’
As part of the 12 Days of Clink Street Christmas blog tour I’ve agreed to share an extract from Matthew Redford’s Who Killed The Mince Spy?; I’ve just posted a review of the book, so go an have a read of that if you want to know more.
December Review Schedule
Just because it’s that time of year, it doesn’t mean I’m slacking off. These are the reviews I have booked in for definite. There will be others, I have a couple of books on my Kindle that I’ve received from Netgalley that I want to review. Some are even seasonably appropriate. As you can see, one a week is scheduled for the entire month, and there is on blog tour planned. I hope you enjoy the variety in books this month.
- 2nd December
- Matthew Redford
- Who Killed The Mince Spy?
12 Days of Clink Street Christmas
- Who Killed The Mince Spy?
- Matthew Redford
- 6th December
- Jane Robins
- White Bodies
- Jane Robins
- 13th December
- Mikayla Elliot
- Snow
- Mikayla Elliot
- 20th December
- George Billions
- Fidget Spinners Destroyed my Life!
- George Billions
- 27th December
- Bolivar Beato
- Pangaea: The End of Days, Revelations
- Bolivar Beato
Everything Is Better With Dragons 