Brynmor Jones Library Blog
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (2016) I first came across Anthony Horowitz as the author of the Alex Rider books, which I read to my children as they grew up. Noting that he had written a lot of TV scripts as well, I was drawn to watching Magpie Murders in 2022 and, subsequently, its follow-up, […]
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab (2020) Sometimes when you read a book, you do not want it to end. This is what happened when I read The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab. The book wasn’t one I would normally have picked to read myself, but it was recommended […]
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair (2023) Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Safiya Sinclair grew up guarding herself against an ever-present threat. Her father, a volatile reggae musician and strict believer in a militant sect of Rastafari, railed against Babylon, the corrupting influence of the immoral Western world. Rastas were ostracised in Jamaica, and […]
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (2015) Crow – from Ted Hughes’s renowned poetry collection Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow – is mythologised in Max Porter’s hybrid novella Grief is the Thing with Feathers. In a London flat, two young boys are processing the sudden death of their mother […]
By day, a lifted study-storehouse; night Converts it to a flattened cube of light. Whichever’s shown, the symbol is the same: Knowledge; a University; a name. Philip Larkin, 1983. On the Brynmor Jones Library, from Collected Poems, 1988. Larkin at 100 Given what would have been Larkin’s 100th birthday on the 9th of August 2022, […]