by NRB | 12 Sep 2019 | Non-fiction |
Toby Faber delivers a slice of publishing history replete with (now) famous authors. Toby Faber is the grandson of Geoffrey Faber who, in 1929, established the publishing firm Faber & Faber. He tells the story of Faber & Faber mostly through original...
by NRB | 7 Dec 2017 | Non-fiction |
This biography of Anthony Powell is a fine examination of the creative process and the time between the two world wars. For those who have read and loved – or, as in my case, wallowed in – the 12 novels of A Dance to the Music of Time, this stunningly impressive...
by NRB | 11 Nov 2016 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I must have written hundreds of book reviews. I cut my teeth at the business when I was an academic, reviewing books in the fields of my own research – race relations in Australia and the Pacific. I was lucky; these were popular areas of research and published writing...
by NRB | 3 Jul 2014 | Fiction |
Angela Meyer’s microfictions expose the shiny bare bones of narrative. It took me a while to find Captives in the bookshop, but finally I discovered it, a tiny little thing, sitting in a special display of its own. As it turns out, this separation is rather...
by NRB | 7 Feb 2014 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
I’ve been reading biographies of two writers I admire in part – Norman Mailer and George Orwell. Literary biography is something I enjoy and the best examples of it, such as Richard Ellmann on Oscar Wilde and Norman Sherry on Graham Greene, have given me enormous...
by NRB | 3 Aug 2012 | The Godfather: Peter Corris |
My workroom is spacious, light and airy. It is detached from the house, joined to it by a short, covered walkway. It’s built of brick, is very well insulated, and solar panels on the roof supply most of the power to the electronics. The large window in one wall looks...
by NRB | 23 Apr 2012 | Fiction, The Godfather: Peter Corris |
Recently I was asked to name five books that everyone should read. That old chestnut. I declined; people have such different tastes and read in such different ways that the idea makes no sense. I offered instead ‘five books I’m glad to have read’. This was accepted. I...