October Round Up

 

 My review of two books about A A Milne, E H Shepard and Winnie the Pooh, came out in Literary Review. 

I wrote an article for The Spectator about GQ's weird instructions for gentlemen. 

Philip Pullman's final novel about Lyra Belacqua, The Rose Field, was published, and my review appeared in The Telegraph.  

And I also wrote a light-hearted piece about the news that a family is looking for a tutor for £180,000 per annum for their one year old, also for The Telegraph.  

Over on Substack, I posted a video of my Ondine practice,  and I also wrote about aversion to technology; children's books and AI; and why we need English literature degrees. 

Children's Round up for July issue, Literary Review

 I've reviewed five children's books for Literary Review's July issue.

Wished by Lissa Evans
Small! by Hannah Moffat

Hedgewitch by Skye McKenna

Escape to the River Sea by Emma Carroll

The Imagination Chamber by Philip Pullman.

Philip Pullman's THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH: review in Literary Review

I've reviewed three books for the October issue of Literary Review: The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman; Bearmouth by Liz Hyder; and Beyond Platform 13 by Sibeal Pounder and Eva Ibbotson. Here is a link.

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman: review in the Financial Times

I've reviewed Philip Pullman's new book for the Financial Times. Read it here.

THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN BLAKE by Philip Pullman: review, Times Literary Supplement

I've reviewed Philip Pullman's first graphic novel, THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN BLAKE, for The Times Literary Supplement. Check it out here.

Dec / Jan Literary Review Children's Round Up

I've done my biannual children's round up for The Literary Review. It features:

The Diviners by Libba Bray
Scramasax by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
The Traitors by Tom Becker
The Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher
The False Prince by Jennifer A Nielsen
The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop by Kate Saunders
Phantom Pirates by Daren King
The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson
Grimm Tales for Young and Old by Philip Pulllman

It's in the Dec/Jan issue of Literary Review,which is packed with other fun things - a piece by Edmund de Waal on Michael Cardew; a poem by Alice Oswald; the Bad Sex in Fiction Report, of course; and the usual selection of thought-provoking and witty articles.

Goodbye Marion Lloyd

Marion Lloyd: Brilliant

The Hospital Club in Covent Garden was abuzz with almost-weeping authors and publishers last night: the excellent and redoubtable Marion Lloyd is retiring from publishing. I've been a great admirer of her books for years: sometimes doing a round up is very difficult, as hers always warrant more attention. She's picked and nurtured many excellent authors  - Philip Pullman, Frances Hardinge, Sally Nicholls, Eva Ibbotson, Georgia Byng and dozens more - and her books have won every prize going. Her husband and children (who include the actor Harry Lloyd) were also in attendance. It was on her advice that I read Peter Dickinson's fantastically good The Ropemaker.

The head of Scholastic said in a speech that when Marion, as a descendant of Charles Dickens, was introduced to the Queen, the Queen said - "You're Marion Lloyd. The publisher." Which, as accolades go, is up there with the best.

In a warm and funny speech, Marion said that she was very lucky to have got her job at all - she began as a shorthand typist. It is a sad indication of the world today that someone "without qualifications" would not be able to get into the publishing business as she did. In her day, she could buy a book for a thousand pounds and sell 25,000 copies; these days, it's more likely that you buy one for £25,000 and sell a thousand copies. She joked that retirement sounded like slippers and cardigans, and that she didn't want to do anything like that; so let's hope that we still see more of her in the book world in the years to come. A hearty cheer for Marion, for her wonderful imprint, and for all the excellent books that have stimulated and challenged children's imaginations over the last forty years.

Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales, and T C Boyle's San Miguel

Hello there, I've reviewed Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales for Young and Old for the Telegraph, and T C Boyle's San Miguel, also for the Telegraph. Both fine books.

The Liberators - as text book!

Some cheering news in the post to liven this gloomy January week - an extract from The Liberators is being used as the basis for a comprehension question in a CGP "Practise and Learn English" textbook, for children aged 10-11. It's the "Modern Text", sitting opposite L M Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables as the "Classic Text", which makes me rather happy to be in such company. Also I think I can just about do the comprehension questions ... Of course education is an important theme in The Liberators, what with the snivelling tutor Perkins. I look forward to the first, annotated, scholarly edition, with an introduction by Philip Pullman.

Literary Review: Children's Round Up

My round up of children's books is in this month's Literary Review, a magazine so packed with jam it's like a bonus-sized jar of Bonne Maman. And don't we all love Bonne Maman. Mmmmm. Hold on a sec. Right, now that I've had my afternoon fix of toast and jam, I'll tell you about the review - I'm doing ten (mostly) creepy books for Christmas.

They are Anne Fine's The Devil Walks, Mary Hooper's Velvet, Chris Priestley's Mr Creecher, Lauren Oliver's Liesel and Po, The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce, A Greyhound of A Girl by Roddy Doyle, Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp by Philip Pullman, and School of Meanies by Daren King.

In this issue you will also find out what the Hawaiian word for sulphur is - "kukae pele", or Pele's excrement (Pele the goddess, that is), and be introduced to Leet, the gaming language in an article by David Profumo; there's also brilliant stuff from Kwasi Kwarteng, Robert Irwin, Adrian Tinniswood, Claire Harman, John Gray, D J Taylor and bags more.

Review of The Liberators by Philip Womack on Just Imagine

I've stumbled across this review of The Liberators on the Just Imagine Story Centre. It's a lovely one:

"Ivo Moncrieff is thirteen and a half years old and he’s never been to London. Even before arriving at his glamorous aunt and uncle’s home for Christmas, he’s thrown into the greatest adventure any boy could ask for. As he enters London’s Underground, and waits for a train, an object is thrust into his hands by a wild stranger with an incoherent message. Moments later the boy witnesses the stranger’s gruesome murder, and Ivo is next in line to die if he doesn’t keep his wits about him. Ivo finds out he’s up against the ancient power of the Liberators who, after centuries in the shadows, are impatient to overthrow London. The murderers want the object, they seem untouchable from the laws of the land, and he’s a vulnerable child in a grown-up’s world. As the city approaches total breakdown, it’s all down to Ivo; his two new friends, a boy and a girl; plus an eccentric slightly over the hill adult hero. “Myth and fantasy intrigued me,” Philip Womack states, “I have always been interested in the human…to impose patterns upon what is chaos, and to find meaning in what we find meaningless.”

" The Liberators is a book full of rumbustious non-stop action from start to finish. It must be the dream of many boys to be caught up in a fantastic escapade completely outside an adult’s experience and imagination. This is its strength and some of its weakness. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It didn’t let up for a single moment, not even when Ivo goes for a cup of tea in a café; I would have adored to have been a customer that day. Tatler (also, informally, The Tatler) has stated that Philip Womack is "The New Philip Pullman".

"An enthralling tale that attempts to explore what it means to be a child surrounded by adults who have power and authority. "

http://www.justimaginestorycentre.co.uk/content/liberators

Lost and Found

The Booker Prize shortlist has been announced - but not for this year. Instead, because of some complexity in the rules, the year 1970 was missed out, so this year the balance will be reset and we will all jump into a time machine and zip back to the era of the flower child. This may sound like a marketing opportunity, but what it is doing is bringing into the news some excellent novels, and that surely is a good thing.

Out of the six books listed, I have read four - interestingly, all by women. Mary Renault's Fire From Heaven is a marvellous, sleek, intense piece of work, about the youth of Alexander the Great; Nina Bawden's The Birds on The Trees details the tragedies that befall a family whose son is expelled from school; Shirley Hazzard's The Bay of Noon is a sun-lit affair, all repressed emotion and smouldering sex, and Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat is poetic, dark and surprising. All these books might just as well have been written yesterday; it is a mark of their writing across the board that they do not rely on gimmicks or flashiness, just good, elegant, well-moulded sentences. Also, too, they deal with issues - homosexuality, incest, drug-taking, adultery - in clever, clear ways. They throw light upon the time they were written, and yet stand as comments upon human nature. What is rather marvellous is that they are all short. I wonder whether both these points could be applied to many of the books shortlisted for the prize in the last couple of years.

This week I have also been in contact with many South African writers, talking about a way forward for the country and its literature. It seems particularly appropriate in the weeks after Easter, with the sun rising and the story of the Resurrection ringing in our ears (whether you believe in it, or have been listening to the discussions about Philip Pullman's new book, The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ). I attended a christening at the weekend: a new life, old friends, and hope.