Reviews round-up

OK, so I’ve been a bit slack in updating this these past few weeks, but I’ve done a number of reviews recently, as follows:

 

Andrew O'Hagan

Andrew O’Hagan’s book of essays (previously published in the London Review of Books) includes a brilliant account of his abortive attempt to ghostwrite a memoir by Julian Assange. Here’s my Sunday Times review

 

Brenda Maddox

I’ve spent a lot of time on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, but have never found a dinosaur skeleton, as Mary Anning did in 1811. Brenda Maddox’s book is about the Victorian geologists like Anning who changed the way we looked at the world – proving for example that it is much older than anyone thought and thus challenging Christian orthodoxy. My Sunday Times review is here

 

Amanda Craig

 

And finally, I very much enjoyed Amanda Craig’s latest novel and reviewed it here for the Literary Review.

Mr DIY

tools

 

Very pleased to have a new short story published on storgy.com. ‘Mr DIY’ is about a man who is struggling to fix both his house and his life. I actually began writing it in 2003, but then abandoned it, only to pick it up again last year and completely rewrite it. Experts often advise writers to put away their writing for a while in order to come back to it with fresh eyes. I don’t think they mean leave it for 13 years, but in this case it did the trick. You can find the story here