Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
17th March 2023 This epic novel – 624 pages in 135 chapters in the excellent Penguin Classics edition of 2013 – is one of the most lauded in American literature (though it was a commercial failure when first published). I was previously aware of the basic theme – Captain Ahab’s obsessional quest to kill the…
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (1883)
16th November 2022 Although I missed out on reading this book in my youth, I am very familiar with its characters and plot thanks to the various versions presented over the years in comics and film and on the stage, the last of these most recently during lockdown via an online interpretation from The National…
The Appeal by Janice Hallett (2021)
20th October 2022 In the crowded market for murder mysteries, The Appeal has attracted a great deal of critical attention – and commercial success – for its highly unusual method of presenting the components of the narrative in order that the reader can attempt to arrive at the solution. In the small town of Lockwood,…
Something Might Happen by Julie Myerson (2003)
22nd July 2022 It is my custom, when visiting somewhere that I have not been to before, to find a novel set in that location. So it was that, prior to a recent trip to Southwold on the Suffolk coast, I caught up with Julie Myerson’s Something Might Happen, which was published in 2003. The…
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (2020)
28th October 2021 The Mirror and the Light is the final part of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell at the court of Henry VIII. It follows Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012), both of which won the Booker Prize for Fiction. The second book ended with the execution…
Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq (2019)
9th May 2021 There can be little doubt that Michel Houellebecq is one of the most controversial modern novelists. This is partly because of the subjects about which he chooses to write, but also due to the political perspectives that his characters often represent, his occasional descriptions of scenes of disturbing horror and – in…
London Rules by Mick Herron (2018)
2nd April 2021 London Rules is the fifth in the series of Mick Herron’s modern spy stories based around the occupants of Slough House, a rundown Secret Service office situated near the Barbican in London. (It has been followed by Joe Country and Slough House, the latter published earlier this year). Slough House is where…
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (1722)
7th March 2021 It is perhaps not surprising that, in the current prolonged circumstances of dealing with the impact of Covid-19, I have been drawn to the great work by Daniel Defoe. I prepared for my reading of the novel with a little research into the Great Plague, which is estimated to have killed approximately…
The Second Novel is Published
6th February 2021 I am delighted to report that a significant milestone has been reached this week with the (electronic) publication of my second novel. In On the Carousel, we follow a young man’s journey through the 1980s, as he enjoys the benefits of success, but then starts to re-assess his values and priorities. The…
A Fictional Dozen
I have set myself the task of listing a dozen pieces of fiction that I really like. The items given here are not necessarily my favourite pieces of writing, but I have an affection for them for a variety of reasons. It will be seen that I have (mainly) excluded the great works that are…
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JR Alexander 