A bad hobbit…
It appears from WENN via Yahoo News that the Hobbit may feature some of the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings, despite Bilbo being the only one who does so in the books. I really hope it isn’t true but I’m not holding my breath.
Reliving Britain in William Mayne’s Earthfasts
Earthfasts is William Mayne’s most famous book and deals with Arthurian mythology.
Keith and David are crossing the Dales when they hear drumming and are surprised when a drummer, Nellie Jack John, appears from underneath the land. Unaware of the date, he is convinced that he is still in the seventeenth century. They take him around [...]
William Mayne’s The Battlefield
William Mayne’s The Battlefield, published in 1967, is an odd fantastic novel which is worth a read for curiosity.
The Battlefield in question is an area of land which generates its own myths about who fought there and when, ranging from an ancient battle to a civil war to the Devil. Its centre piece is the [...]
The Harry Potter Lexicon lives
I see that Steve VanderArk has now re-written the Lexicon and RDR will be publishing the revised version, which is probably the best course of events. (Source: The Independent)
“It’s a funny world if they don’t learn about stories” – William Mayne’s A Grass Rope
I’ve been reading William Mayne’s A Grass Rope, published in 1957, for the next chapter of my book. Mayne’s one of those sort of seminal authors who is currently out of fashion yet to my mind is more accessible than say Alan Garner. As I’ve also just re-read Phillipa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden which brought [...]
Opening the closet – was Tintin gay?
From the department of overreaching readings comes an article by Hugh Rifkind in the Times titled “Of Course Tintin’s gay. Ask Snowy” which trots out some ‘evidence’ that he was gay. It is sloppy writing and research by somebody either having a bit of a giggle or simply wanting to add in some controversy to [...]
The ghostly clock ticked slowy – Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden
Tom’s Midnight Garden was Philippa Pearce’s second novel and like her first, Minnow on the Say, deals with time and history. Written in 1958, the book explores the instability of the real world when confronted with dreams, stemming from the Second World War. It explores the faded, closed world of Mrs Bartholomew’s house and expresses [...]