The little white attic

Today is Jane Austen’s 244th birthday.  Her reputation is strange and contradictory—Jane Austen, as I often say, is overhyped but underrate...

Whilst the likeability or relatability of a character or narrator is irrelevant for judging literary merit, I can understand when readers do...

I like the way Daphne du Maurier describes Manderley, Maxim de Winter’s house.  Here’s the way to the house:  “This drive twisted and tur...

Very suddenly, to the narrator of Rebecca as well as the readers, Maxim de Winter proposes. Everyone’s shocked.  The characters meet in Mo...

I’m currently reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.  After the awful The Lair of the White Worm , Rebecca is a pleasant surprise. It is ...

Every reader must at some point decide that curiosity is no longer enough, and they have no choice but to stop reading.  I thought earlier ...

Anyone who comes from Dracula to The Lair of the White Worm , expecting a nutty book, would still be surprised and baffled because of how ...

Everyone needs a bit of escapism once in a while (especially now when elections are coming up in the UK and my facebook newsfeed is flooded ...

Not long after The Ripper Hoaxer: The Real Story (2006)*, I’ve just seen The Yorkshire Ripper Files: a Very British Crime Story (2019)**.  ...

This blog post has no disclaimer. 1/ Recently I’ve noticed that the word “transphobic” is used very regularly, almost everywhere and for al...