Liberating constraints – Tom Chivers’ Adventures in Form
Reporting back from the Edinburgh International Book Festival, George Szirtes quotes Jackie Kay: “Why do novelists so fear the death of …
Monthly Archives: September 2012
You’ll never walk alone – David Morley’s The Crowd
At midday, those expecting Ian Payne’s Sunday Review show on Radio 5 Live were thrown into David Morley’s The Crowd, …
Insult to Injury – Simon Armitage’s The Not Dead
An officer, fresh from Helmand, played us the mobile phone footage: the excited chatter and the puny rifle cracks were alien …
The Old Masters were never wrong about suffering – Olivia Byard’s Strange Horses
When I took my wife’s call, I thought she was trapped in the wreckage of a car. Her brain was …
No Gypsy Wedding – David Morley’s The Invisible Kings
Donkeys were still hitched to lamp-posts in County Limerick in the ’80s and our village was the sort of place …
Kissing a Saint’s Stomach Lining – Adam Thorpe’s Voluntary
The strangest thing I’ve kissed is a section of stomach lining belonging to the Blessed Ralph Sherwin. He’s an old …
Poor Rude Lines 