(WARNING: I’ve just finished writing two essays, so if my writing style is seems long-winded, pretentious, pompous, and rather wordy, then I’ve finally become what I feared most!) What makes a good book for me, (but not necessarily according to the official cannon) centres on the general pretence of the book’s idea – which should [...]

After having read Heaney’s translated version of ‘Beowulf‘, my expectations of this poetry collection were rather high. Indeed, the fact that I had to pay £9.99 for less than 70 pages also gave me the notion that some very high-quality work was encased within the covers of this particular paperback. In this review, I’m unfortunately [...]

Released as a film this week by ‘America’s greatest living director’ Martin Scorsese with Leonardo Dicaprio in the lead role, Shutter Island is a complex and intriguing mystery thriller which is dark, unpredictable and steadfastly unconventional. The novel takes place in 1954, as federal marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule search for escaped murderess Rachel [...]

Set in Roman London, the story’s protagonist is Zuleika, the rebellious only-daughter of immigrants from the Sudan. At a young age, she is married off to a wealthy merchant old enough to be her father, and then left to her own devices in her ‘gilded cage’ when he goes away on business. Life seems hollow [...]

After being a member of the technical crew for a performance of this piece of drama, I was intrigued enough by what I saw to buy a copy of the script so that I could peruse the writing in a more leisurely manner. Having only read one of the Sherlock Holmes stories all the way [...]

Genre: Science Fiction (3rd in a series) Basic Plot: It’s been quite a while since the first drop landed on the planet of Bontany. The humans, Deski, Rugarians and the sole Catteni alike were managing to live in relative peace, especially with the protective ‘bubble’ around the planet, placed there by the mysterious ‘farmers’. Then [...]

I don’t usually make a point of reviewing ‘academic’ books for a set of very good reasons. I guess the main of which is the fact that I doubt any of my readers would particularly want to read about some obscure critical theory that was written up decades ago. But upon reading a critical theory [...]

Noted by the author himself as being a ‘trivial play for serious people’, The Importance of being Earnest embodies one of those rare occasions when the writer doesn’t seem to take themselves too seriously. The general plotline follows two men, Algernon and Jack, who both seem to lead double lives in a sort of country-mouse, [...]

When I first began reading this novel, I was reminded of a book I was forced to read at college, namely Enduring love by Ian McEwan. After groaning inwardly at the similarities (needless to say, I didn’t get on with the latter book at all) I continued reading, and I was extremely glad that I [...]

As far as the Daughters of Decadence and the Fien de Siecle go, I’m really not sold on most of their writing. But encountering The Yellow Wallpaper is encountering much more than the other stories; stories about women being pains in the asses, or rebelling against common norms of Victorian gender roles; all fairly straightforward. [...]