Of Man and Monsters

When I read that Reece Shearsmith - one quarter of the comedy-horror troupe The League of Gentlemen, co-writer of the twisted anthology series Inside No. 9, voice of Wallace's unstoppable robot Norbot - had an autobiography coming out, I was immediately interested.  The description put me off however.  Still stung by Daisy-May Cooper's awful 'Hexy Bitch', I thought the basic concept of 'Things I Took from the Dark: A Museum of Me' sounded similarly lazy and unoriginal, a quick-fix way of writing a biography that avoided saying anything interesting about its subject.  Still, like a virgin to a vampire, I couldn't help being drawn in...

Driven Wilde

There are few historical characters whose stories remain powerful long after their deaths.  One such person is Oscar Wilde, the playwright, wit and gay icon who ultimately couldn't help being the author of his own destruction.  Like many, I've always been drawn to the story of Wilde's dramatic rise and fall, so I was immediately intrigued by the premise of John Boyne's latest novel, ‘The Weight of Angels’, an expansive reimagining of the life of  Oscar Wilde.

September 2026 Round Up: Horror, Humour, and Humans Being

 It's been a busy few months.  For many, the heat either made concentrating impossible, while others found that reading was the only activity they could do without melting into a human puddle.  I've certainly read more than I've blogged about, so here's a round up of a few books that I haven't already mentioned this year.