Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series is one of my favourites of all time. Despite initially not having much of a clue what the many, different sailing terms meant, somewhere in the first instalment I fell hook, line and sinker for the characters – particularly for the delightfully grumpy Stephen Maturin – and since then, whenever times have got tough and I need a pick-me-up, I treat myself to a little holiday in their company. As O’Brian is deceased and the series numbers twenty books, I’ve been […]
Write more, and quickly!
Damn. It’s only April and I’ve already fallen behind in my reviews, so this one’s a two-fer as I try and catch up. I read these back-to-back during some sleepless nights in Rome (which was actually a plus as far as I was concerned – I got to do tons of sightseeing while also racking up some serious reading time), safely ignorant of the fact that there aren’t any more in the series yet until I got to the end of The Hanging Tree and […]
In which everyone gets the clap
Written with an easy style that informs as well as entertains, City of Sin is an eagle-eyed view of the English branch of the world’s oldest profession through the ages, from the first girls brought in chains to our shores for the sport of the Romans, right up to modern sex workers advertising on the internet, scoring publishing deals and causing the Daily Mail to work themselves into self-righteous froths. Taking in those who chose to enter the profession as well as those forced into […]
No mer-men? Denied!
I’m a long-time fan of both Anne Rice and her greatest creation, the vampire Lestat, but even so I can find them both a little much at times. When I first saw the title of this, the latest of The Vampire Chronicles, I thought this might be one of those times, with visions of a waterlogged Lestat hanging out underwater with a bunch of mer-men. I was to be disappointed in this, and I’m still not sure if that might have made a better, if […]