Michael J. Ritchie's Blog, page 6
February 25, 2023
“Victoria Wood: Unseen On TV” by Jasper Rees (2021)
“Victoria Wood had more to say and do.”
When we lost Victoria Wood in 2016, we lost so much that she still had to give. Obviously I never knew her, but from how she seemed and what was said in her biography, it seems that she wasn’t done. I would’ve given my left arm for one more sketch, one more song, one more routine. Fortunately, I haven’t had to. With access to her papers, her biographer Jasper Rees has dug through her files to find everything she wrote but never released.
Included in this g...
February 19, 2023
“Sulphuric Acid” by Amélie Nothomb (2005)
“The time came when the suffering of others was not enough for them; they needed the spectacle of it, too.”
Like the last review, this is a book I read many years ago and wanted to get back to.
In what is perhaps the not-too-distant future, reality television is looking for something new. Those in charge come up with Concentration, a death camp as entertainment. Contestants don’t apply, they’re kidnapped off the street, loaded into cattle trucks and taken off to be put in the camp under the watc...
February 16, 2023
“All My Friends Are Superheroes” by Andrew Kaufman (2003)
“Tom and the Perfectionist sit in the designated waiting area of Gate 23, Terminal 2, Lester B. Pearson International Airport.”
I felt an urge to re-read this lovely little novella I read over ten years ago. I don’t often go back to things I’ve read before, Christie excluded, but I felt it calling to me.
On the day Tom married The Perfectionist, her ex-boyfriend, Hypno, hypnotised her into believing that she couldn’t see him. That’s the trouble when all your friends are superheroes and you’re co...
“Death Of A Bookseller” by Alice Slater (2023)
“The neon lights that topped the dome of Brixton Academy glowed like the projectile vomit from The Exorcist.”
One of the perks of bookselling is that sometimes you get access to books that haven’t been launched to the public yet. Given the length of my TBR list, I often don’t get to them in time, but here’s one that I couldn’t leave, if only because whichever of the staff worked there finished it first would have an edge should there be any advice within.
Roach is a bookseller and a loner, never...
February 12, 2023
“A Murder Is Announced” by Agatha Christie (1950)
“Between 7.30 and 8.30 every morning except Sundays, Johnnie Butt made the round of the village of Chipping Cleghorn on his bicycle…”
It’s Christie time!
The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn awake to find a strange notice in their local newspaper: “A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30pm.” Letitia Blacklock, owner of Little Paddocks, knows nothing of this murder, but does know her neighbours well enough to be sure they’ll all turn up at the ti...
February 8, 2023
“The Left-Handed Booksellers Of London” by Garth Nix (2021)
“It was 5.42am on May Day, 1983, in the west of England, and a sliver of the sun had edged above the ridge.”
As a bookseller (though one who is neither left-handed nor based in London), it felt like this book would find its way to me in time. I’ve never read Garth Nix before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Time to get stuck in.
Susan Arkshaw has just turned eighteen, so before she heads off to art school, she’s got a few months to kill – what better way to spend them than moving to Lond...
January 28, 2023
“Ask A Historian” by Greg Jenner (2021)
“Did Anne Boleyn have three nipples?”
Two history books in one month? I must be craving a TARDIS.
This time around, Greg Jenner is taking us on a whistle stop tour of world history by answering fifty questions given to him by members of the public. Jenner is one of the best historical communicators we’ve got at the moment (for my money, Lucy Worsley is the other particular great), as evidenced with all his work on TV, in books and with his excellent You’re Dead To Me podcast. Here, his usual sty...
January 21, 2023
“The Secret Life Of Albert Entwistle” by Matt Cain (2021)
“Albert Entwistle was a postman.”
How much do you know about your postman? Let’s talk to one.
Sixty-four-year-old Albert Entwistle has been a postman for almost fifty years, and lives for his job. Keeping himself to himself and trying to avoid any interactions with his customers or colleagues, he spends his evenings with his cat, Gracie, and watching television. He is the eternal outsider. Just before Christmas, he finds himself with receiving a letter of his own, and one that will change everyt...
January 18, 2023
“Fake History” by Otto English (2021)
“Through nothing more than sheer longevity, my grandparents became time travellers from another age.”
For the last few years, it seems increasingly that we live in what is called a “post-truth world”. Politicians, celebrities and sometimes even the media seem able to say whatever they want and claim it’s fact, even with evidence to the contrary staring them in the face and available to anyone with access to Google. But this is actually nothing new. They say history is written by the winners, but...
January 11, 2023
“Slade House” by David Mitchell (2015)
“Whatever Mum’s saying’s drowned out by the grimy roar of the bus pulling away, revealing a pub called The Fox and Hounds.”
Which idiot decided to read a book about a haunted house while living alone in a very quiet block of flats? Oh, looks like it was me. Fortunately, it’s David Mitchell, and he writes too well for me to stay mad at for long.
In 1979, precocious child Nathan Bishop and his mother Rita are invited to a musical soiree at Slade House, home of Lady Norah Grayer. While Nathan would...
