Author Archives: gregbrook

The familiar friend, or the classic? I’ve been given a new edition of Wuthering Heights. Well, when I say ‘new edition’ I mean new to me, not actually new. It’s a leather-bound hardback from the 1930’s with an embossed cover, gold lettering and trim, heavy, thick pages and the good, dry smell of a well-madeContinue reading “Which Edition of Wuthering Heights?”

When I challenged myself to come up with my can’t-live-without desert island books, there was only one children’s book on it, C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, all seven books included on the list as one title as a way of sneaking some extra books ashore with me. It was some time later that I realisedContinue reading “Do we overlook children’s picture books?”

Some of the best works of imagination, like Carl Nixon’s latest novel, make you believe that events that would be outlandish or bizarre if met in real life are merely inevitable. The strange becomes realistic. It takes a talented writer to bring this about. Among others, Dickens is well known for excelling at this. (AlsoContinue reading “The Tally Stick, by Carl Nixon”

What are you reading at the moment? For a lot of readers that’s a straightforward question – they’re reading the book (singular) that’s beside their bed, on their phone, on their coffee table or in their bag. And for plenty of others, like myself, the question is trickier. Does the person asking want to knowContinue reading “What Are You Reading?”