A Labyrinth of Kingdoms (10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa) by Steve Kemper - WW Norton & Co. 2012 - “Dr. Livingston, I presume?” So said Henry Morton Stanley, the American journalist/explorer, at the culmination of his 1871 central African expedition to find the famous missing missionary. The somewhat silly and stilted greeting still lingers with …
Tag: fiction
MY OLD LADY
My Old Lady - 2014 film written, produced and directed by Israel Horovitz - There is a curious practice in France relating to real estate. The French call it ‘viager’ and it works in a similar fashion to a reverse mortgage, but without using a bank. Both systems are based on the equity inherent in …
GOOD OMENS THREE
Good Omens 3 -Amazon MGM, BBC Studios and Narrativia, 2026, Directed by Rachel Talalay - If you read the Pratchett & Gaiman book ‘Good Omens’ you likely waited with eager anticipation for the release of the mini-series. With a classic fantasy book upon which to write the screenplay and a cast that included Michael Sheen …
The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly
The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly - Hodder & Stoughton 2022 - Not to be confused with the 2005 horror film of the same name, Erin Kelly’s inspiration for ‘The Skeleton Key’ was drawn from a unique book called ‘Masquerade’ by Kit Williams, published in Britain in 1979. The book was a collection of pictures …
SERAPHINA BY RACHEL HARTMAN
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman 2012 Doubleday In Hartman’s fantasy world, there have been forty years of an uneasy peace between human people and their traditional enemy, the dragons. While in their natural state, the dragons have all the traditional trappings: wings, scales, massive bodies and the ability to breathe fire. The new twist in this …
FAYNE BY ANN-MARIE MACDONALD
FAYNE BY ANN-MARIE MACDONALD - Knopf 2022 - It’s not often I’m as conflicted about a book as I am with Fayne. For the most part the story is written in the tradition of a nineteenth century novel. With the main character occasionally speaking directly to the reader (Oh, reader…) and the story’s many unlikely …
LUDWIG
Ludwig is a 2024 Brit box television series of six episodes with a second season set to release in the spring. John (played by David Mitchell) and James Taylor may be identical twins, but their similarities end there. Although they grew up together and were very close, James is outgoing, has a wife, a …
IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES BY KATHERINE RUNDELL
IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES BY KATHERINE RUNDELL, Bloomsbury, 2023 This is the first of my Christmas book gifts courtesy of my dearest darling daughter (DDD). It’s a fantasy book that has garnered a lot of attention, with copies of first prints already being offered at silly prices. An inventive tale and quite engaging, it has elements of …
I-RAN vs ‘MURICA
With His Holiness, Prez for Life, World’s Greatest Comedian and Grand High Imperial Twitterbug (GHIT) Ronald Rump all ready to start a war against them I-Rainyians, it might be useful to switch your TVs from the World Wrestling Federation and cast a glance at the WAR CHANNEL - besides, no one watches wrestling after Hulk …
THE YGGDRASIL CHRONICLES BY RICHARD WALKER
After unveiling my first book, ‘Punto and Me’ last week, I’m sure you all spent the week on the edges of your seats, wondering if my second book would appear this week. The answer is a resounding YES! Here it is, ‘The Yggdrasil Chronicles’, a fantasy story based on Norse mythology. In this novel you …
Richard's Left Bank 