Book review posted by Chris Hopkins. Walter Greenwood is, of course, famous as the Salford author of the best remembered thirties depression novel, Love on the Dole, a novel which has had considerable impact, then and since. In fact, he lived for the rest of his life as a professional author, writing new works and … Continue reading
Posted in February 2017 …
The Heat of the Day ( 1948) by Elizabeth Bowen
By LA It is war time in the blazing city of London and the beginning of this novel introduces the protagonist Stella and her two male interests. Stella battles between the man she loves, Robert but also the man who seems to feel affection for her, Harrison. Harrison is a spy following Robert as he … Continue reading
The Death of the Heart (1938) by Elizabeth Bowen
By LMC Written by Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart (written in 1938), is one of her best known novels. The novel focuses on the main protagonist, Portia, who goes to stay with her half-brother, Thomas and his wife, Anna, due to her being orphaned. However, Portia is considered to be unusual by Anna, … Continue reading
Coming Up for Air (1939) by George Orwell
By JF The author of this novel, George Orwell, most famously known for his satires on society in Animal Farm and 1984, here composes what can be interpreted as the preliminary text in a trilogy which serves as a worthy political antecedent to these two great, significant literary pieces. Often overlooked by many, Coming Up … Continue reading
Stamboul Train (1932) by Graham Greene
By JN The Orient Express, a fascinating machine transporting people from different walks of life across Europe in a web of murder, lies and love. That’s the image that Graham Greene establishes in his gripping page-turner ‘Stamboul Train.’ This cemented his reputation as ‘one of the most important British writers of the twentieth century.’ (Daily … Continue reading
Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh
By AW Written between December 1943 and June 1944 following a parachuting accident, Evelyn Waugh’s “operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters” (so described in the novel’s preface) has received significant acclaim: Time magazine in 2005 heralded it as one of the hundred best post-1923 novels of the English … Continue reading
The Forbidden Zone (1929) by Mary Borden
By JM Mary Borden’s The Forbidden Zone, an accumulative collection of ‘fragments’ as termed by Borden, accrues both prose and poetry in a personal memoir of her time serving as a Red Cross volunteer nurse for the French army during the First World War from 1914-1918. Borden, a rich heiress from Chicago initially looked for … Continue reading
Trooper to the Southern Cross (1934) by Angela Thirkell
Book review by George S: Trooper to the Southern Cross is a novel by Angela Thirkell, first published in 1934 under the pseudonym of ‘Leslie Parker’. She had married George Thirkell (her second husband and an Australian) in 1918, and in 1920 traveled with him and their children to Australia on a troopship. This book … Continue reading
The Three Miss Kings by Ada Cambridge
Book review by Sylvia D: The Three Miss Kings by Ada Cambridge (1844-1926) was serialised in The Australasian in 1883. It was then published by Heinemann in England and Australia in 1891 and I read a Virago 1987 edition.
Saturday Night at the Crown (1959) by Walter Greenwood
Book Review posted by Chris Hopkins. Walter Greenwood is best remembered for Love on the Dole (1933), but he went on writing until the nineteen sixties and remained a popular author. I recently read his last novel and thought it reflected interestingly on his thoughts about later working-class life, though it is slightly beyond our … Continue reading
Reading 1900-1950 