On Dressing Down & The Tragedy of Fidel Castro
A book that makes big promises without sufficient returns…
Category: Book Review
The Violet Hour by Katie Roiphe
All Men Must Die, innit?
The 24-Hour Wine Expert by Jancis Robinson
Should non-fiction books about intoxicants even be legal, yeah?
Zone by Mathias Enard
pleasure is a lightening bolt that leaves no trace
more online male-centric feminism
More writing from that weird character I do at Huffington Post.
On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham
Very Colonial travel writing from author of The Painted Veil
Radar Road: The Best of On Impulse by Nath Jones
A short story collection, and my first experience of an eBook.
Love Notes to Men Who Don’t Read by North Morgan
Absolutely knock out novel about the gay bro scene.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
because white men can’t / police their imagination / black men are dying
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr Fox is an ode to adventure capitalism. My life is an ode to wine.
Vampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas
Experimental late 20th century short fiction.
The Short Anthology: The Second Issue (edited by Will Martin & Kat Phan)
A collection of short fiction inspired by photography.
D. H. Lawrence and Italy
I review a Lawrentian travel writing collection containing Twilight in Italy, Sea and Sardinia and Sketches of Etruscan Places.
Birthday Post: 6,500 Words on Skyfall
It’s my birthday and I’ll write 6,500 words on Skyfall if I want to
100 Haikus about Haemorrhoid Cream by Lewis Parker & Friends
I met a stranger off the internet and he gave it to me.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Can I write about writing about race without discussing race? No.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne
This is great fun, but absolutely fucking terrible.
Salvador by Joan Didion
In 2010 I produced a farce set in the El Salvadorian Civil War. In 2016 I learnt about the El Salvadorian Civil War.
One of Us by Åsne Seierstad
A beautiful book about a horrible thing.
I Write Self-Involved Book Review For Another Site
I read and discuss a book about dickhead hipster bartenders, just weeks after stopping being one.
Specimen Days by Walt Whitman
The life and memories of Walt Whitman, focusing on war and nature.
It ain’t easy being a bald man under thirty…
A bald man on a dance floor is as welcome as a corpse
Useful Work v. Useless Toil by William Morris
Morris is a dream-weaving Corbynista, whose acknowledgement of a sad truth mis-sees it as a solvable problem.
A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes
Love is not the preserve of the randy, love is not just something that happens with pants off or about to be off…
Consider the Lobster And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
David bloody Foster bloody Wallace…
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
In America alone, 281 pounds of pig shit is produced for every one person per year. I don’t know if that’s a lot as I don’t know what a pound is.
The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks
Living in the city is bad for the soul
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz
Have you ever had a dream? Have you ever dreamt a day, a week, a month, a year? Have youContinue Reading
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
I don’t know where this book came from. I know I bought it, I’m pretty certain I went out ofContinue Reading
The Hatred of Poetry by Ben Lerner
A lot of people don’t read poetry. A lot of people who read a lot of books, don’t read poetry. AContinue Reading
On the Value of Literature by Karl Ove Knausgaard
What is the point of literature? What is the point of life? Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of the hugely acclaimed MyContinue Reading
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
This is my first blog post in a while, and even then it’s still happening a little earlier than expected.Continue Reading
I Write Book Review Elsewhere Shocker
Have a look at this link: http://www.openpen.co.uk/review_arrival_of_missives/ I’ll be publishing new reviews every month or so for Open Pen. Kewl!
Recovery by John Berryman
Long before James Frey was breaking Oprah Winfrey’s fragile heart by fictionalising his time in addiction therapy and the behaviourContinue Reading
on the beach from fat man on a beach
Visiting the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales.
Martin John by Anakana Schofield
I’ve accidentally grown a goatee and as a result of this I now look like a sex pervert*. This wasContinue Reading
The Ongoing Moment: A Book About Photographs by Geoff Dyer
Well, as some of you may be aware, I’m off having adventures. Yes, again. After an 18 month stint inContinue Reading
Save Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
Once he had said, ‘If you want to choose, you must be a goddess.’ That was when she had wantedContinue Reading
Football by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Fitzcarraldo Editions is fast becoming my favourite publishing house. Simon Critchley’s Notes on Suicide was one of the best books IContinue Reading
Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock
I haven’t read a comic book in a while, and after taking almost three weeks to read my last book, IContinue Reading
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
When I read the first volume of Elena Ferrante’s lauded Neapolitan Novels series, many of the conversations being had about itContinue Reading
So Sad Today: Personal Essays by Melissa Broder
I shouldn’t have read this. CONTEXT: I walk a tightrope, emotionally, one that has become longer and looser ever sinceContinue Reading
The Open Pen Anthology (edited by Sean Preston)
Open Pen is a free literary magazine that publishes new writing. It is distributed in various bookshops both within (andContinue Reading
Devotion by Ros Barber
Ros Barber was one of my lecturers when I did my Creative Writing MA, and Ros Barber is one ofContinue Reading
The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
The Cold War is a period loved by fiction. The world at that time was cast into blurry, grey-stained, blackContinue Reading
Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine
What next? I thought I’d go with something a little different, a little rounder, wider, more fictional and less harrowing.Continue Reading
The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing
I’m an abyss filling up with regret and alcohol at equal measure, like a really wet martini.
Yesenin: The Selected by Sergei Yesenin
Recently, I’ve been trying to cut down the massive piles of unread books in my house. By reading them, notContinue Reading
A Cup of Rage by Raduan Nassar
A Cup of Rage is a Brazilian novella by Raduan Nassar first published in 1978 as Um Copo de Cólera. InContinue Reading
The Neva Star: A Story by C.D. Rose
One of the good things about a sober evening is the mental energy to read. This is the only way IContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 