Book reviews

country lane wth fields of sunflowers on either side

2024 Grateful 21: Buying distance

I flew into Budapest late one afternoon. The sensible thing would have been to stay overnight in the city and get the train down to

hand holding a drawing of a stick family - woman, man, and two children

2024 Grateful 23: A man called Ove

I’ve only recently discovered the brilliant Swedish author Fredrik Backman. Were I in charge of the world, I’d make his book – A Man Called

2024 Grateful 29: Time Travel

Somewhere recently, with someone, the conversation of time travel came up. They spoke about how travel into the future might technically be possible, given the

Book cover - blue and white strips with AGEING OF THE OPPRESSED in red capitals followed by A pandemic of intersecting injustice. Edited by Silvia Perel-Levin

2024 Grateful 32: Ageing of the Oppressed

One of the things I enjoy most about my work is the variety of stuff I get to read. This past week, for instance, I

2023 Grateful 8: The Stranger Times

I met Brendan McDonald three books ago. Met, as in he talks and I listen. Not met, as in we had a cuppa. He’s an

The voice of the Martians

György Marx was everything I have never aspired to be: a physicist, an astrophysicist, a science historian, and a professor. Okay, I’d have liked to

2023 Grateful 36: Change the channel

There was a time when I swore to the world and anyone else listening that I’d never, ever, ever, go digital when it came to

up close of a spider's web with a forest in the background

2022 Grateful 25: Memory Ghost

I’ve had time to do some sitting around with old friends recently, stringing together whole conversations that started with ‘Do you remember…’. Yes, they’ve been