Get That Job by Christine Reidhead – Review
One of the many blessings of being an adolescent is that adult pursuits such as finding a job and paying one’s way in the world lie too far into the future to be at all pressing.
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The Challenge of Casting Adolescence for an Adult Readership
It was at first slightly deflating when recently I received, for the first time since The Best Year Of Our Lives was published two and a half years ago, a negative review on Amazon.
Continue ReadingThe Early History of Worple Road Infant and Worple Road Mixed Schools 1897-1927 by Ken Noakes – Review
The scene is set with a reminder that 1897 is Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee year and, needless to say, for the children who were to become the first pupils at the brand new Worple Road Infant School in Isleworth this was an occasion like not many other. On March 1st of that year they took up their places at the school, resplendent as it was with all the latest technology in the form of gas lamps and coal fires.
Continue ReadingWorking At Worple by Ken Noakes – Review
Once again from the pen of my former primary school teacher Ken Noakes has issued forth a gem to keep alive the most precious of memories – those earliest years spent at primary school, in my case the eponymous Worple Road School in Isleworth.
Continue ReadingThe Summer Of ’76 by Ray Burston – Review
To begin with this book was an easy sell to me because I find myself enchanted by the seventies in general and by anything to do with 1976 in particular. So a simple glance at the title made it a must-buy. When I discovered that it was set on the Isle of Wight, not only in a town but actually around a street with which I am very familiar (for it has been the venue of countless family holidays in more recent years), my complete and undivided attention was assured.
Continue ReadingBowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy by Tony Visconti – Review
Tony Visconti looked up at me as I approached the table behind which he was sitting with a welcoming expression, and what appeared at least to be a genuine willingness to engage me in conversation and an eagerness to be helpful in answering any questions I might have had for him.
Continue ReadingCrowlink, a Magical Location for School Journeys: an Appreciation by Ken Noakes – Review
A Magical Location For School Journeys – An Appreciation By Ken Noakes is not just a fascinating venture back to an age of innocence for those of us who as children were part of the experience. As a retrospective it serves also to remind us that that innocence was shared, in some degree, by the adults in our company back in those far off days and indeed by society itself.
Continue ReadingOtherwise Perfect by Jenna L. Hughes – Review
Written in diary format, this story is unusual in that the narrative flits between two friends as the chapters alternate, charting a period of their lives and the relationship that they have with one another.
Continue ReadingUnjustly Accused by Susan L. Stewart – Review
This isn’t the type of book that I would read ordinarily, but once I had got going I found myself impatient to learn what was going to happen next, and I was somewhat reluctant to put it down. Which, I guess, is the measure of a good story which is well written and presented.
Continue ReadingSpider From Mars: My Life With Bowie by Woody Woodmansey – Review
I was always going to enjoy this read. Whilst it is undoubtedly the case that David Bowie enjoyed the services of some of the most talented musicians alive throughout his long and distinguished career, the Spiders period was the closest he ever came (Tin Machine excepted) to being thought of as the leader of a band as opposed to a strictly solo artist supported by a sometimes ephemeral backing cast.
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