Rachel Roddy’s second book is full of anecdotes and recollections, little narrative vignettes about her immediate household, the extended Sicilian … More
Category: Books
Thresholds
We cross thresholds, we readers. Each book we read is entered through a portal, and marking those portals—projected onto the … More
A game of madness
I’ve never paid particular attention to Nicholas Hawksmoor’s famous London churches, although I am familiar with some of them. I … More
One face in a thousand
In Rhetorics of Fantasy, her important structural taxonomy of fantasy literature, Farah Mendlesohn identifies four key types of fantasy, defined … More
A kitchen quadrivium
This book made a big noise on release, and Spouse bought me a copy for Christmas shortly thereafter, which I … More
Worlds and authorities
I was spurred by the recent BBC TV adaptation of Northern Lights to re-read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, … More
A book to sort you out apiece
A viral disease is sweeping the world, killing indiscriminately. Well, nearly. Its fatal impact is concentrated in a particular minority, … More
For Pete’s sake!
In 1983 or 1984, I had a good look around Charles Jencks’s Thematic House, then recently completed. It is now … More
The magic of the real
My introduction to fantasy fiction was The Lord of the Rings, which I encountered surprisingly early, while visiting a friend … More
Food as illustration
In Western Europe we take holidays on the Mediterranean, we hear about migrants attempting to cross it, we imagine our … More
A book on the wall
For a small, softly-spoken country, Scotland carries a large intellectual stick. Voltaire said that ‘we look to Scotland for all … More
Energy and entertainment
My long-interrupted project to read or re-read all of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books has at last been resumed, after … More
Sexy stabby
Illustration is a word that usually implies instrumentality, a visual work that’s auxiliary to something else. More broadly, you might … More
Tilting at reality
I’ve read a lot of popular science books over the years, but never until now have I felt a real … More