Category: Emma Raymond

Virginia Woolf Exhibition Review: Art, Vision and Life at the National Portrait Gallery

10/4/2014

By Emma Raymond

I came to the Virginia Woolf exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery knowing I would see the famed author’s suicide note. I could already recite the beginning, having read it and heard it read countless times…

‘Dear Leonard, I feel certain that I am going mad again…’

Review: The Places In Between

9/22/2014

By Emma Raymond

“… Afghanistan was the missing section of my walk, the place in between the deserts and the Himalayas, between Persian, Hellenic, and Hindu culture, between Islam and Buddhism, between mystical and militant Islam. I wanted to see where these cultures merged into one another or touched the global world,”

Rory Stewart, an MP, historian and intrepid Scot, walked across Afghanistan during the winter of 2002. His travel book The Places In Between is an account of his journey.

Top 10 Best Opening Lines to Books Part 2

9/13/2014

By Emma Raymond

Here is part 2 of the Top 10 Best Opening Lines. If you missed part 1, click HERE to catch up.

Top 10 Best Opening Lines to Books Part 1

9/8/2014

By Emma Raymond

When you open a book, what is the first thing you will read? The opening line of course! If this fails to catch your attention, you're unlikely to carry on reading so here we will be looking at five of the best openings to a book. Keep your eye out for part two and the remaining five!

Review: The 100 Year Old Man who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

8/30/2014

By Emma Raymond

Scandinavian crime novels have been finding themselves on our book shelves more and more frequently in recent years, with the goliath names of Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo and the like rolling off the tongue of those in the know. Gritty, deadpan and developing at breakneck speed, their works are everything that Jonas Jonasson’s latest novel isn’t, and it’s fantastic.

News: Controversial Dahl Cover

8/24/2014

By Emma Raymond

Book publishers Penguin have come under scrutiny once again for defending their decision to use a controversial image on the front cover of a new edition of Road Dahl’s classic children’s tale, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Recently, the publishing house announced the new cover artwork to outcries from bookworms nation-wide. The cover picture marked a huge departure from the endearingly scruffy sketches of Quentin Blake, that readers have come to associate inextricably with Dahl.

The Hobbit Trilogy - An Insult to Tolkien Fans?

8/17/2014

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by Emma Raymond

Many critics have commented on the ridiculousness of Peter Jackson’s decision to divide The Hobbit, a slight book of around 300 pages, into three long films. But this choice is merely the tip of an iceberg that is the trilogy’s fundamental and unforgivable flaws. There are also scenes, plot lines and characters which simply don’t belong in the film.

Top Ten Banned Books Part 2

8/3/2014

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By Emma Raymond

Here is part 2 of the Top Ten Banned Books. Read Part 1 HERE.

Top 10 Banned Books Part 1

8/2/2014

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By Emma Raymond

Across the world, books are banned for many different reasons which vary from country to country. Today, we shall be looking at my top 10 books that have been banned around the world.

Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

7/20/2014

By Emma Raymond

‘My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood (…) I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita Phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.’

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a fascinating and compelling blend of characters, settings, and tropes that can be said to originate from an array of diverse genres. Shirley Jackson’s final novel could be categorised as crime, young adult fiction, fantasy, Gothic, and probably much more.

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