Jennet Mallow is born in Yorkshire in the 1920s but her interest in art and creativity alienates her from her family, her father who is a priest, her conventional sister, and her mother. Jennet moves to London in search of a more exciting life and finds it in her new environment and in the handsome and enigmatic figure of the painter David Heaton. When Jennet falls pregnant, her parents more or less force the two to marry.

In the post-war austerity of the 1940s, the young couple struggle to make ends meet and Jennet finds that her home life is gradually eroding everything she has fought to achieve. Aware that David is becoming increasingly reliant on drink and tired of the dank and drab bed-sit in which they live, Jennet suggests they move to Spain. There, the bright blue skies, warm air and sunlit beaches give the couple and their children a new lease of life.

Jennet begins to paint again and an agent takes an interest in her work. But as Jennet’s own career begins to take off, her relationship with David sours and the two enter a destructive spiral with tragic consequences. Such is the outline of the book provided by the publisher. But it does not do it justice.

The novel, which appears most of the time as almost autobiographical, is imbued with the spirit and freshness and colour and light of painting. The process of painting and its results. It is suffused with magical descriptions and sometimes it is almost stream of consciousness stuff. You can’t fail to be captivated.

But whilst you do constantly want to know about Jennett and what happens to her, there are times when she strikes you as a cold fish, for instance staying on a prolonged holiday when her father is seriously ill, and you wonder then whether this is quite realistic or, if it is, whether you should care for her at all. Still, let us grant artists a certain leeway and enjoy this real attempt to get inside their mind.

A Review By Keith Smith

How does she do it? Another wonderful book by the author of ‘The End of Mr Y’ which itself was terrific. So intelligent, so alive. Is there a connection between a ship in a bottle, the science of time, a knitting pattern for the shape of the universe and the Cottingly Fairies? This story covers so many different strands from philosophy and religion and science and maths and, well it’s difficult to keep up. But highly enjoyable on the way.

‘Our Tragic Universe’ is in essence about a writer struggling to put together a ’storyless’ story. She lives in Dartmouth which I know well and incredibly two thirds of the way through reaches the same conclusion I did – that it is not a ‘real’ place. I found it so unsettling I left. I couldn’t put it into words at the time, but now Scarlett does it for me. Amazing!

Whilst the book in itself is a ’storyless story’ it nevertheless and most improbably remains a page-turner. For a start there are many relationships in it which we want to follow through as the characters are so gripping. Then there are the splendid locations. And there is a loose plot of sorts. It is all a bit difficult to explain. Do try it. You’ll be hooked.

A review by Rebecca

“So, okay, I have to fight-“

“Defeat.”

“-defeat your seven evil ex-boyfriends if I want to keep dating you?”

“Yeah, well, I guess, pretty much?”

 The Scott Pilgrim comics are stupid. Their main premise is stupid. Almost every plot twist is stupid. And yet they continue to delight me no matter how questionable the logic is. No matter how off-the-wall it gets. Somehow, I’m almost able to retain my suspension of disbelief, even when someone has just exploded into nothingness, leaving only a picture of Scott Pilgrim’s face: an extra life.

The combination of videogame references, deadpan snarkers, and blatant breaking of the fourth wall is, to put it simply, funny. Added to the cutesy art style and the out-of-this-world but somehow totally believable characters, it’s easy to see how the Scott Pilgrim series, without even being finished, has been made into a film already.

By putting unbelievable events in existing places (O’Malley uses at least one real place in Toronto in each volume) Scott Pilgrim goes beyond anything I personally have ever read, breaks that, and crosses through into the realms of awesome. Probably literally.

Things start off relatively normal – the characters are somewhat wacky, but that’s all. However, once Ramona Flowers, Scott’s main love interest, appears, things escalate very quickly, quickly reaching ‘really weird’. This weirdness is perhaps the main selling point, especially as the characters themselves seem to realise how weird things are – most of the time at least.

And it’s charming. Scott is charming, despite being a twenty-something-year-old who is ‘between jobs’ and stupid enough to ask what ‘the website for amazon.ca’ is. The whole way through, you find yourself rooting for him. You want him to beat the evil ex-boyfriends and win Ramona. He’s a useless, stupid protagonist and he’s wonderful.

A Review by Keith Smith

I am a sucker for diaries and biographies, especially political, whether it be the incredibly detailed day-by-day analysis of Robert Caro’s Life of Lyndon Johnson or the effervescence of  Alan Clark. So there was no way I could put down the first installment of Alastair Campbell’s Diaries whose 750 pages I read over the Bank Holiday weekend.

And what a marvellous read it was. Straight from the centre of things, a very intimate portrait of what it was like to live with the topmost echelons of New Labour before their first victory. And live with them Campbell did…his was a 24/7 job always on call, working as hard as anyone humanly could, and almost destroying his family in the process.

The diaries are forthright as you would expect, undubitably honest, full of colour, immediate and full of insight. The overall impression you are left with is of Tony Blair finding it absolutely impossible to deal with the lack of team spirit at the top and the inability of Mandelson, Brown, Prescott and Cook in particular to get on with each other. Prescott somewhat surprisingly emerges as a bit of a hero, bluff and blustering yes, but able to admit he was wrong, and always with the Party at heart. Of all the top figures he was the one with no hidden agendas, and he found it extremely frustrating that Blair was unable to sort out the machinations of the others. Although brave and single-minded in many respects Blair comes across as having few man-management skills, and very weak in trying to enforce some kind of order at the top. Why on earth he didn’t build up and use Prescott in his role as Deputy to hammer Brown et al into line is beyond me.

But the Diaries make it absolutely crystal clear that we are dealing with very fallible human beings, and their individual strengths and weaknesses are soon there for us to see. This had an enormous effect on Blair’s ability to enforce radical change, and influenced policy to a very surprising degree.

There is of course a tremendous cast of characters, and another who comes out with added lustre is David Blunkett. There is one unforgettable scene where Campbell is amazed at how easily Blunkett makes them both a cup of tea, performing every action as if fully-sighted, and then lays into him very brutally, catching him totally by surprise before gathering himself and apologising…’Christ, David it’s come to something if you and I end up arguing like this…..’ A touching picture which is completely indicative of the pressure that all the characters operate under, and sometimes find difficult to deal with, relieved at times by the easy way in which Blair and Campbell can relapse into humour as a way of dealing with the situation.

The book comes across as a very human account of what it was really like. It is easy to misjudge politicians and their helpers because so much of what they do is show and not substance. If you last the course in reading the Diaries you will find they act as a terrific corrective. I have every admiration for Alastair Campbell for dealing with the absolutely impossible, under pressure, and with latent Depression hanging over him, without actually going mad. No-one else was as feared at the time, and you begin to realise that that was as much for his sheer excellence at what he did as his famed temper.

I can’t wait for the next volume. In the meantime you could try one of his novels ‘All In The Mind’ or ‘Maya’ which provide extra clues as to what makes this man tick. I recommend them.

A Review by Carolyn Dews

This is completely different from any crime novel I have ever read.  The main character happens to be a transvestite owner of a night club in Istanbul who turns detective when his fellow transvestites are being murdered. The circumstances surrounding their deaths become increasingly bizarre.

It isn’t easy for our hero/heroine  to slot in investigations in between leg and chest waxes. There is a race against time as the killings accelerate. Everyone knows it isn’t easy running in stilettos clad in a black leather cat-suit. Can she solve the mystery without breaking a nail?

I liked this I thought it was quirky and dare a say a little camp!