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By the Book, Hunstanton

Spontaneous holidays can always throw wonderful discoveries in your direction, and this day was no exception. As I wandered through the charming streets of Hunstanton, navigating a delightful pop-up market for local makers, I stumbled upon “By the Book,” a delightful independent bookshop. The warm and inviting atmosphere immediately drew me in. Their carefully curated… Continue reading By the Book, Hunstanton

Burn, Witch, Burn. Stories of Witches.

There has been a huge upturn recently in the number of books about witches and witchcraft. Practicing witchcraft, being a witch, has become almost trendy. But literature, like society, has taken its time to get here. Let’s go back to when witches were dragged into popular culture kicking and screaming. The witch trials and the… Continue reading Burn, Witch, Burn. Stories of Witches.

According to Stephen King’s The Running Man, next year will be intense.

According to Stephen King’s The Running Man, next year will be intense. It’s 2025 and 28-year-old Ben Richards is living in a dystopian America. The economy is in the toilet and the country is run by a totalitarian state. The gap between rich and poor is so vast that the poor have been pushed to… Continue reading According to Stephen King’s The Running Man, next year will be intense.

The Train was on Time – Regret, Reverence and Remembrance

The Train was on Time (Der Zug war pünktlich) by Heinrich Böll is a short novel following the journey of a German soldier, Andreas, returning from leave to Przemyśl in Poland to rejoin the fighting on the Eastern Front in 1942. From the early stages Andreas senses his own death coming and spends much of… Continue reading The Train was on Time – Regret, Reverence and Remembrance

Thérèse Raquin – Zola’s Putrid Exploration of Guilt and Punishment

Around 2002 I was working in Our Price. I would spend a lot of time talking to lots of people about music and films, but also books. It was in one of these conversations with a customer; I must’ve been talking about my love of French literature, around that time I was devouring all the… Continue reading Thérèse Raquin – Zola’s Putrid Exploration of Guilt and Punishment

Milton – Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Most quotes as famous as this are from Shakespeare, but this one is from the tremendous epic poem, Paradise Lost written by John Milton, who was, by all accounts, a punk poet 300 years before the invention of punk. Banned Milton’s poem was banned by the… Continue reading Milton – Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

In Defence of The Graphic Novel

The graphic novel. Often dismissed as mere comics or relegated to the realm of entertainment for children (certainly not true!), graphic novels are, in fact, powerful and sophisticated works of art that deserve to be recognized as legitimate literature. We propose 4 contenders for graphic novels which should definitely be on your reading list as… Continue reading In Defence of The Graphic Novel