Inspiration Journal
As a reader, I’m constantly reading new novels and non-fiction, and as a writer, I love to attend author events and talks. But as a magazine journalist - schooled in the art of the visual - I’m also attracted to atmospheric images and inspirations, so …
Here’s my round-up of book reviews, author talks, literary events, visits to bookish places of interest and yes - a dash of visual and sensory inspiration, too.
Book review: The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury, £18.99)
THE MATCHBOX GIRL by Alice Jolly is the complex, richly imagined, beautifully researched and ultimately tragic story of its youthful narrator, Adelheid, who is on the autism spectrum and under the care of Dr Asperger at the Vienna Children’s Hospital, during the Second World War.
Book review: The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Penguin, £9.99)
‘The girls, the infernal heat, a fresh-dead body.’ This is a cracking first line, and THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis (Penguin, £9.99) offers readers a brilliant premise: a small 18th century village, a burning hot summer, a ready rumour mill, and five sisters accused of transforming themselves into terrifying hounds.
Book review: May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry (Granta, £14.99)
MAY WE FEED THE KING by Rebecca Perry is a whimsical, thoughtful and beautifully written debut novel from Granta, weaving between the narrator, a present-day installation curator, and the past royal court that she’s seeking to recreate.