Books and Kate Gould

Kathleen Jamie - Sightlines

Uneven collection of nature essays heightened by the author's passion and outrage

24 Apr 2012

(Sort Of Books) Kathleen Jamie’s collection of essays has the potential to be a remarkable study of nature and human existence within it. Unfortunately, it isn’t until two thirds of the way into Sightlines that Jamie begins to emerge as an engaging…

Paul Magrs - The Bride that Time Forgot

27 Oct 2010

(Headline Review) The Bride that Time Forgot is a curious book. It’s part tale of a cosy little town, part time travel (via pinking shears and a watercolour), part vampire hunt, part spoof, and part touching tale of undying friendship among the…

Emma Donoghue - Room

24 Aug 2010

(Picador) Inspired by the notorious Fritzl family case, Room is the story of a young boy and his mother, both held captive in a fortified shed. Their kidnapper, Old Nick, frequently rapes Jack’s mother while he hides in the wardrobe where he sleeps…

Zaiba Malik

Attempting to dispel a few myths about Islam

13 Aug 2010

Zaiba Malik’s experience of her Muslim faith has been one of humility, humour, exploration, and horror. It has taken her from the comedy and anxieties of a childhood in Bradford to imprisonment in Bangladesh for ‘anti-state activities’, while filming a…

Angus Peter Campbell's Archie and the North Wind

Enchanting in parts, but not a wholly compelling or intriguing tale

12 Aug 2010

To temper the harsh winters and escape an unhappy marriage and dreary life on a Scottish island, Archie leaves to find and cover the hole where the North Wind blows. Working as a crewman, he heads north, accompanied by a Russian composer nicknamed Brawn…

Alberto Manguel will discuss All Men Are Liars

And why we should step back from the over-reliable narrator

6 Aug 2010

Alberto Manguel’s latest book, All Men Are Liars, is ‘a tribute to falsehood’ in which no one is a reliable source; not the enigmatic figure whose death is being investigated, not those who knew him, nor Manguel himself. It’s a concept that challenges…

Lin Anderson - The Reborn

29 Jul 2010

(Hodder) A baby sliced from the womb in a fairground hall of mirrors; Jeff Coulter, a charming psychopath luring girls into a pact of sex and murder while he creates baby dolls from his prison cell for bereaved parents; dark, disturbing rituals; the…

Filthy English by Peter Silverton

Comprehensive history of swearing lacks humour

17 Sep 2009

Swearing is a universal phenomenon. The delivery, meaning, intent and pitch may vary – some might mouth a silent ‘fiddlesticks’ while others erupt with a string of expletives so incomprehensible it’s difficult to discern the exact meaning – but we all…

Eleanor Catton - The Rehearsal

24 Aug 2009

(Granta) Eleanor Catton’s debut novel is a labyrinthine tale of a high school sex scandal, exploring the ways in which it becomes part of the pupils’ lives and is purloined by students at the nearby drama school who use it for their end of term play.

David Bainbridge

Debunking the myths surrounding teenagers

7 Aug 2009

Vilified, hated, dismissed, feared and ridiculed, with a reputation blackened beyond damage limitation by even the deftest of spin doctors. Teenagers may be the least fashionable or genial of causes to champion, but that is exactly what David Bainbridge…

Eleanor Catton

Exploring the personality-shaping notions of adolescence

7 Aug 2009

Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal is a study of and search for reality. Following a group of teenage girls as they attempt to navigate adolescence with its attendant agonies and anxieties, it delves into the labyrinthine and precarious relationship between…

Adrian McKinty: Fifty Grand

9 Jul 2009

Seeking to avenge the death of a father she hardly knew, cop Mercado flees unrelentingly bleak Cuba for the celebrity-filled Colorado ski resort where he was killed in a hit-and-run, his demise covered up with a pay-off to the sheriff. With a luxurious…

Giles Foden: Turbulence

28 May 2009

Giles Foden’s novel opens with the fantastical vision of icebergs being towed from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia for the purpose of watering the Sheikh’s desert. Taking in sea lions trained to detect mines, frissons and debate, the horror and waste of war…

Darin Strauss - More Than It Hurts You

5 Feb 2009

SOCIAL DRAMA If you’re in the mood for a brisk, entertaining read, More Than It Hurts You isn’t it. If your interests lie in the inner workings of individuals and relationships, however, this is an in-depth study of exactly that. Josh, Dori, and…

Lemn Sissay - Listener

16 Oct 2008

POETRY COLLECTION Lemn Sissay’s latest poetry collection is not exciting fare. The main problem is that it simply lacks freshness with little that is striking or exceptional, largely because he borrows so heavily from idiom, cliché, and adage. There…

Annie Proulx - Fine Just the Way It Is

4 Sep 2008

Fine Just the Way It Is marks Annie Proulx's return to Wyoming, the setting of two previous collections of short stories. The cast is, at once, familiar and fantastic. The devil refurbishes hell, adding to the décor centuries of portraits by mortals…

Lisa Appignanesi - Express yourself

14 Aug 2008

Kate Gould finds Lisa Appignanesi on good form as she discusses the history of health and the future of censorship

Daniel Barenboim - Everything is Connected

14 Aug 2008

MUSIC ANALYSIS (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) In 1999, Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said set up the West-Eastern Divan Project, enabling young Middle Eastern musicians to work together. Now, in a collection of essays and articles that is part manifesto, part…

Thomas Glavinic

Telling a tale about the very nature of being

7 Aug 2008

From Mary Shelley’s The Last Man to I Am Legend, the idea of being the last person alive would seem to have an abiding fascination. Thomas Glavinic’s take on it, Night Work, tracks Jonas, who awakens one morning to discover he has, for reasons that are…

Janet Frame - Towards Another Summer

19 Jun 2008

Blurring of fiction and fact and the overlapping of character and writer have long influenced the interpretations of Janet Frame’s work. With her writing featuring characters who resembled her and experiences lifted from her life, readers have often…

Lisa Appignanesi - Mad, Bad and Sad

14 Feb 2008

CULTURAL HISTORY (Virago) Possession, love, sex (too much or too little), religion, abuse, grief and heredity are some of the myriad causes of women’s madness, according to this book, which is subtitled ‘A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from…

Tom Paulin - The Secret Life of Poems

4 Jan 2008

LITERARY CRITICISM (Faber) The extent to which you’re likely to enjoy Tom Paulin’s The Secret Life of Poems depends entirely on what you’re hoping to get out of it. If you’re looking for a ‘poetry primer’ (as the book is billed) that breaks down every…