Tag Archives: london

REVIEW: The Tiger in the Smoke – Margery Allingham

(Penguin 1975, originally published 1952) Meg Elginbrodde, recently engaged to Geoffrey Levett, has been a war widow for five years after her husband Martin was killed in France. Recently, however, photographs have been turning up, both in illustrated papers and … Continue reading

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REVIEW: Penguin Lines – various authors

The London Underground is 150 years old this year. In commemoration of this, Penguin have issued a series of books, one for each of the Underground Lines (the East London although not now in existence, has its own book, Buttoned … Continue reading

Posted in 2013 New Reads, Humour, Non-fiction, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes (film, 2009)

Directed by: Guy Ritchie I really like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes – more famous than his creator – and wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to watch Guy Ritchie’s 2009 film version which takes … Continue reading

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A Masculine Ending / What Men Say – Joan Smith

(Faber & Faber 1987 / Vintage 1995) These are two detective novels by feminist writer Joan Smith featuring academic Loretta Lawson as her sleuth. The titles, therefore, are rather ironic, considering Smith celebrates women’s independence and friendship in both novels, … Continue reading

Posted in 2011 New Reads, Crime fiction, Feminism, Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dracula – Bram Stoker

(e-book, originally published 1897) This most famous of vampire novels is an interesting novel told from many different points of view. It’s a tense story, but its moments of terror are never explicitly stated, leaving much unexplained and to the … Continue reading

Posted in 2011 New Reads, Fiction, Read on my Kindle, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

‘Diary of a Provincial Lady’ – E. M. Delafield

The Virago edition I read also contained three sequels, namely: The Provincial Lady Goes Further; The Provincial Lady in America; and The Provincial Lady in Wartime. E. M. Delafield wrote these books originally as weekly entries in Time and Tide, … Continue reading

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C. J. Sansom’s Tudor mysteries

Dissolution / Dark Fire / Sovereign – C. J. Sansom These are a trilogy of Tudor-set detective novels which provide a vivid and thrilling glimpse into England during the 1530s and 1540s, during the later part of the reign of … Continue reading

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