Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

Hi everyone. Sorry for not posting on Monday but I was not feeling great. I think it is this heat here in the U.K; the weather has been rather hot lately. (I am never fan of the weather being extremely hot!) Todays post is the final review of the month that I had planned and therefore the post I had planned for Monday will be moved to June as the theme of the month will continue of course for a second month. Speaking of review, I am looking at Jackie Kay's episode for the BBC programme In My Own Words . This episode is a heartwarming and deeply personal examination of Jackie Kay's life with Kay herself narrating it and featuring in the programme. She discusses how things were as she grew up, what she had to face and where her passion for writing began. For me, it allowed me to understand her writing better as I got to consider what made her write and where some of her inspirations came from. I was able to get a closer at her childhood and where her passion for writing began. As...

For today's post I am reviewing  Bi  by Julia Shaw. This was actually an amazing book to read. It explores everything about bisexuality. What I loved especially was how she started with the origins of bisexuality and who created different ideas which have shaped how bisexuality exists within our current, modern-day society. The other thing I loved was how Julia Shaw emphasised the fact that people in the bi community have faced prejudices. We have faced prejudices from those who are heterosexual AKA straight and gay or lesbian people. It is good that she highlights this. Just because bi+ people are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, it does not mean we are fully accepted by everyone. The reason I refer to the community as 'bi+' is to include a multitude of plurisexuals and pluriromantics. These include those who identify as bi, omni, pan or poly for example. Here in the book Shaw mentions other types of plurisexuals. Plurisexuals are just people who have sexual attraction to...

For today's blog post I am reviewing Pam Ayres' children's book Hattie the Hare  (2024). Now it is a nice book with beautiful illustrations by Nicola O'Byrne. The colourful and intricate illustrations alone could capture the attention of children. Then we have the story itself. The story is rather special I find, offering information about hares as it goes on. But the facts are not given in a boring, factual manner. The story is fascinating with rhymes that are perfectly created. Ayres is keeping children engaged too by avoiding words too complex for them to comprehend. What makes the story even better is how she has included facts about hares at the back, which provides a learning element for children. It is good to have books that can be educational and that can children can also enjoy. Pam Ayres here has written a great book, which I believe ticks all the right boxes for a book being aimed at children. It is sweet and informative without being likely to create boredo...

Today I am reviewing another book. This time I am reviewing Pam Ayres's 2021 collection, On Animals . The collection brings together all her poems from across her work that in some way include any animals. These animals include hedgehogs as featured in her poem 'In Defence of Hedgehogs', or 'The Seagull' and even 'My Sister's Cat Does Not Like Me'; both of which indicate the animals included within those poems. As always, Ayres's poems provide her usual and unique humour.  Aside from Pam Ayres offering up her poems that come with the humour and the seriousness or the sentiment at times, she also included descriptions to add context to some of the poems. This is really liked because it gave me insight into Pam Ayres as a person not just as an author. This as well allowed for her to provide insight into things being different because attitudes around certain things have changed since she wrote some of these poems. There are poems in there that are deca...

London. North-west. Caldwell council estate. Four people. This is Zadie Smith's fourth novel, NW  (2012)... Set in a north-west postcode of London, NW  follows the busy lives of four people - Leah, Natalie, Felix and Nathan as they try to make something of themselves outside of the estate from their youth - the Caldwell council estate. Here the novel the explores how in one part of a bustling city can have quite varied people from one another. You have those do well, those who do not, people who have a lot while others have very little, hosts and guests. Then there is also everyone else in between in the novel. For some characters, it has been about change. Natalie for example, was not always called Natalie as she grew up with the name Keisha. Various things happened for her to change her name, originally stemming from her mother's wish to seperate her daughter from her best friend Leah. That does not work because as they grow up across the novel, they do not grow apart fully....

This time I am reviewing the 2021 film Jekyll and Hyde directed by Steve Lawson. This film is a reimagining of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde  (1886). Normally I am not a fan of films that reimagine books but this was very good. In this film, the story is told from the perspective of Dr Henry Jekyll's friend, Gavin Utterson. Utterson (played by Tom Hendryk) is a lawyer who tries protest his friend's innocence when Jekyll is accused of murder and subsequent suicide. Throughout the film, Gavin Utterson tries to work out the truth, speaking to people and trying to delay the police. The policeman in charge is trying to close the case, not wanting to entertain the possibility the idea that Henry Jekyll could be innocent and that his suicide was anything more than just a suicide. His determination to prove his friend's innocence is a, obvious testament to their friendship and I find it touching. Utterson comes across as a ki...

Hi all. I hope you are well. My next offering on the blog, is a review from  Rosewater  (2023) by Liv Little. This is her debut and currently only novel. Although, it seems another one may be on the way. For now, we can roll around in the joy that is  Rosewater . This novel is complex, sexy, exhilarating and zesty. At times it had me feeling the heat, intensely! There was one moment where I was gasping, then I was gagged (in the best way possible) and then found I had my legs crossed, both tightly gripped to one another. You probably think I'm weird and I do too a little bit. But the novel had me feeling a certain type of way! I'm still trying to ask myself - is it possible for a book to turn you on? Rosewater  tells the story of Elsie trying to keep it together as her life crumbles around her. As she navigates how things in life are going wrong, she finds comfort in having Bea who is more than just her co-worker. I won't even go on about her best friend Juliet, of w...

Welcome to my blog again people. I just wanted to start by saying that I found out the other day that it is Agender Pride day today. I thought it seemed fitting after mentioning it in my definitions part one post. For today's post I am giving you my second review of May's author of the month - Douglas Stuart. I decided to read and review his essay he did that is on Literary Hub. The essay  ‘ Poverty, Anxiety and Gender in Scottish Working-Class Literature ’ was a eye-opener in what there was to offer. I must admit that out of all the books that Douglas Stuart was recommending, there was only one I had heard. This was the whole premise of his essay - highlighting books that dealt with "the Glasgow effect" and the lives effected. Having read this article, I understand more behind what is happening in Stuart's own novel Shuggie Bain , which I am currently reading. Keep checking on my blog to see what I have thought of it when I have finished reading it. Of the other ...

Welcome to my blog everyone. If you are new, I hope you enjoy reading my blog posts. If you have returned then I thank you. Today I am delving into Douglas Stuart's short story  ‘Found Wanting ’ from 2020. Douglas Stuart is my author of the month and this is his first piece of work.  I will say that after I had read this I was left a little confused. I did not expect what happened to actually happen. I guess I found it odd. Not bad. No, I liked it. The story takes place in 1990s Scotland, namely Glasgow and is told from the perspective of this seventeen-year-old. He is secretly gay because being gay was not widely accepted. As it was people within the LGBTQIA+ community were treated differently in the 1990s. This is unsurprising following the HIV/AIDs pandemic of the 1980s. What I liked about this story was the narrators quest to find someone like him. The narrator is innocent and has to make do with what he can. I notice how Doulas Stuart set up the story to give readers the ...

Here I am everyone, to give you a new review of a book you could read. I do firstly want to say that due to being away, I did not get the chance to publish my post on Wednesday. So here I am. Anyway, this time I am reviewing Gwendoline Riley's 7th novel, My Phantoms  (2021) and welcome to fractured familial relationships. With the novel in first person, told from the perspective of Bridget we are greeted with her disconnect from both her parents. Bridget has an uncomfortableness with her father who died years ago and her mother who she sees infrequently. Now as someone who studied creative writing in part at university, one thing we talked about was whether a narrator was a trustworthy one. Here, I cannot say that Bridget is. Why does she have a distanced relationship with her mother, damaged with cuts of harsh truth? Her partner, John seems more connected to her mother then she does. Even with him and her sister actually, the relationships seem loveless as if. I wonder where the e...

Hello blog readers, I hope everyone is having a good March. If I am honest, I am finding things a bit testing at the moment but I keep on going, hoping some goodness is coming. Today I am treating you to a review of The Manning Tree Witches  (2021) by A. K. Blakemore. Set in 1643 England, this dark tale is filled with fear and suspicion when the witchfinder general arrives in Manningtree. With strong convictions from the Puritans swarming around, the women of Manningtree do not know who to trust. Questions are being asked and those being asked do not know what to say. The main question on everyone's lips - is she a witch? But this sinister novel forges a villain, not in the "witches" but rather in that of patriarchy. Here this novel challenges whether it is good women vs so called "witches" or rather "women" vs "men". Can one man truly be trusted?  This novel demonstrates the puritanical patriarchy present in the 17th century, amongst the wor...

For my first official post I wanted to give a review of Hastings-born poet Daisy Lafarge's Life Without Air  collection. This was an interesting read for me from the moment I opened the book. Even the contents page drew me. You might ask why but whenever I pick up a new poetry pamphlet or collection for the first time, I like to examine the titles of the poems as it gives me intrigue. Life Without Air  for instance includes a poem entitled 'Axiology' and as I had never come across that word before, I was intrigued into what the poem was about. Then there is a poem entitled 'Jennifer'. I wondered who Jennifer could be - her sister? Her friend? Her lover? Also, what is her story? These I discovered when I read the poem, but don't worry I won't spoil it for you! Now 'Axiology' and 'Jennifer' are only two poems out of many. But they stand out from the others in many ways, as do they all. What Lafarge does with her poetry is she is able to careful...