An illustration from a book of Science Fiction art. The artist was imagining a city of the 21st century. How wrong can you be? Some city skylines can be hideous but not as awful as this one which the artist, presumably, thought was wonderful. And not a bit of green...
One new venture, one updated project. ‘Old Hal’ aka ‘Behold’ was always waiting for the right artist to illustrate it and it turned out he was living just down the road. Steve Johnson’s illustrations are classic and fit the dark story...
I was about to use the term ‘picaresque’ to describe these books but when I looked up the meaning just to be sure, it was defined as roguish or, at the very least, impish. I thought it meant a narrative which describes incidents in someone’s life...
One of the pleasures of sorting out / turning out is that you discover items you forgot you possessed. ‘The Heroes of Asgard’ published in 1952 has the look of a book of an earlier era. A hard cover with restricted colour and a font that signifies...
I’ve usually enjoyed Jonathan Coe’s novels, my favourite being one from long ago, What a Carve Up. Middle England is third in a series about characters first met in The Rotters Club and though you don’t need to have read the first two, it would help,...
Unusual bedfellows, Maria and JB, perhaps. Except they have been side-by-side beside my bed recently. Castle Rackrent I had not read before nor had I heard of its companion, The Absentee. Though Castle Rackrent is the better known, I enjoyed The Absentee more, in the...
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