A Tidy Ending - Joanna Cannon

55%

18.08.23

I started this a couple of times and didn't get too far but this time I focused on getting through it. I've previously found Cannon's prose too flowery and her plots too heavy handed and this was no exception. And I'm all for unreliable and even unsympathetic narrators but it was very difficult to root for this one. That said, the observational comedy was sharp and the awkward Britishness well captured.

In a Good Light - Clare Chambers

 

64%

06.01.23

I much preferred this to Chambers' later and more famous Small Pleasures. Not much happened, but what did happen happened engagingly and showed how a character-driven plot can still make a good story.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend

 

61%

09.11.21

I last read this about 35 years ago (this is the cover I remember), probably when I was younger than Adrian and didn't understand why his problems were so funny. Perhaps because of its huge influence over (British) comic writing and young adult novels, the humour hasn't dated well, but in many ways teenagers never change.

The Rose Code - Kate Quinn

 

54%

09.09.21

On the one hand, day-to-day wartime life at Bletchley Park was well researched and fascinatingly portrayed. On the other, the story was so awkwardly written to be almost unreadable at times. From the weird American phrasing and unconvincing dialogue to cringingly rendered characters to the rather tedious plot (such as it was), it didn't crack the code for my idea of an excellent novel. 

Pilgrims - Matthew Kneale

 68%
15.10.20

I much enjoyed Kneale's English Passengers nearly 20 years ago and, while not quite in the same league, this was a similarly well-researched, well-characterised and entertaining insight into all the aspects of the extraordinary 13th-century trend for walking from Britain to Rome (and back). 

Half Bad - Sally Green

51%
01.09.20

This YA fantasy thriller is notable for its gritty Britishness, as a direct challenge to You Know Who, but ultimately it felt unfinished and underdeveloped, as if an early draft had been sent to the publisher. I think setting up first novels as the start of a series does them a disservice.

Just For One Day - Louise Wener

55%
16.05.20

I imagine the target market of Britpop fans is quite specific, but it includes me. I saw Sleeper perform two or maybe three times in the mid-90s so it's fun to go behind the scenes in this memoir. But it's not as enlightening as I hoped. There was a little gossip (probably within legal boundaries) but I'd have liked to know more about the mechanics of writing a song or making a video or planning a tour.

My Name is Leon - Kit de Waal

49%
24.02.19

Heavy-handed story of a deprived kid saved by foster mothers, substitute fathers and, er, the redemptive power of gardening.

Come to the Edge - Joanna Kavenna

51%
26.09.18

Not as funny or memorable as the cover reviews make out.

The Music Shop - Rachel Joyce

56%
10.06.18

Unlike Joyce's other books, this is sad but not tragic, and [spoiler] even has a happy, cheesy ending, which is unexpected from this author. It's also so slow, with such tedious characters, that I nearly gave up several times. Well-written, of course, but unremarkable.

The Children Act - Ian McEwan

50%
25.02.18

Despite having two copies of 'Atonement', I've never read any Ian McEwan books before. I'm not sure I'll read any more in a hurry as this seemed to have little point as a novel. Yes, it raises some questions about the nature of law and the challenges of upholding it, but so does the A-Level textbook I've just edited, and that has pictures.

Blame - Simon Mayo

59%
21.11.17

Yes, the (DJ) Simon Mayo, or at least his ghostwriter - it was edited well enough for me to suspect extensive rewrites but be still my cynical heart. An intriguing concept, unusually executed, even if it all seemed a little loose plotwise. I only read it because my nine-year-old asked me to vet it but I'd say the violence and complex politics would put it in the 12+ (YA) category.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon

59%
26.10.17

I found the first half in particular distractingly overwritten and a little slow. The 10-year-old narrator was unconvincing as a child, yet the narrative might have worked better if it had only been from her point of view. Otherwise, readable enough and gained some momentum towards the end.

The Nothing Girl - Jodi Taylor

52%
17.12.16

A fairly standard cutesy romcom, enlivened by the narrator's mentor, an invisible talking horse, but unfortunately that disappears two-thirds of the way through. Well written but its distractingly self-published feel could have been solved with a decent structural edit.

Medicus - Ruth Downie

54%
28.10.16

What it lacked in immersive historical veracity, it made up for in joie de vivre. It's no Cadfael but it was a fun mystery in an unusual setting. And sometimes that's just fine.

The Road to Little Dribbling - Bill Bryson

60%
18.08.16

Bill Bryson is one of the very few authors to make me laugh out loud and bore anyone around me with choice phrases. After lending this book to my mum and her partner, it seems I'm not the only one. But it did seem a rather a filler between more meaty volumes (though after writing the history of the universe, it's unclear how much more meat is available to Bryson), and a little incoherent - but great fun and slightly insightful all the same.