I received my first ever letter from a reader recently; it was marvellous. Life as an independent author can be somewhat discouraging, but reading what someone who has just read all of my Sorrow Song Trilogy books has to say about the experience was deeply rewarding. The fact is, it made everything worthwhile!
Book Review
Catch-22: Novel versus Television Series
In essence the novel, Catch-22, is a satire based on the simple principle that war is absurd in every respect. The protagonist, John Yossarion, aka Yo-Yo, spends his whole time trying not be killed, and arguing with his colleagues and friends that everyone is out to kill him, a fact that they do not have a problem with because in war that is exactly what happens.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath opens with the return of Tom Joad, the protagonist, to his family in Oklahoma after being paroled from prison. He has served a sentence for manslaughter after killing a man who attacked him with a knife, and he has been released on licence due to his good behaviour as a convict. What he comes back to, however, is the family home and farm that has been abandoned. The downward spiral of failed crops, the Dust Bowl phenomenon, and the economic crash, has resulted in many small farming families like the Joads losing their land to the banks, leading to a mass migration; many of them heading west to California after they are misled into believing that there is plenty of work there for them.
In the Spotlight: A Laff From Lancashire
Susan Osbourne is a poet with a very perceptive sense of humour that turns even mundane events into happy vignettes of honest comedy
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper’s most famous work, The Last of the Mohicans’, has often been described as unreadable by modern audiences. It is fair to state that Cooper wrote with an overly descriptive style, but then it is not very different to that of other authors of his time. The book was first published in 1826 … Continue reading The Last of the Mohicans
Dune by Frank Herbert
I stumbled onto Frank Herbert’s novel when I was a teenager. I remember that it was a paperback book with a rather garish image of what looked to be a Bedouin man with vibrant blue eyes, which seemed to be rather strange for a work of science fiction. Despite the incongruous depiction I bought and read the book
Eugenica
My book is written to be provocative and informative, not to mention to give people with disabilities an opportunity to shine in the spotlight, not as pathetic Tiny Tims or twisted King Richards, but as real people who can demonstrate the best of human qualities in the worst of human made situations
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
It is a curious fact that the book with one of literature's most famous opening lines, "Call me Ishmael!", was not even in print when the author, Herman Melville, died in 1891. It is also a fact that although many people believe that they know the story of Moby Dick, not so many have read … Continue reading Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
What Makes a Writer’s Day? This!
Finished reading this wonderful book. A historical gem with hats off to the author Peter Whitaker for some seriously accurate research which brought the era to life
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
I expect that most people have an idea of the story of D'Artangan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis that is actually gleaned from the many film and occasional television adaptations of the novel rather than having read the book
Peter C Whitaker 