“A genre-blending 500-page chunker” – Nonesuch by Francis Spufford “There is a grandeur in Spufford’s ambition, but with no quick resolution at the end, merely “to be continued”, it’s whether Spufford has done enough to entice the reader to follow him. If fa…

"Nonesuch's fantastical elements will either thrill or irritate you. #FrancisSpufford is a gifted novelist: he can absolutely handle a gear shift. The question is whether you find yourself still down for the ride after 500 pages."

#Nonesuch #bookreview #book

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2026/03/28/a...

Exhibition on Screen: Turner & Constable - The Reviews Hub Writers: David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky Director: David Bickerstaff Featuring the masters of the English landscape, it’s no surprise that Tate Britain named their current exhibition on Turner and ...

"It is in their innovations that we see Turner and Constable most clearly. Exhibition on Screen's #TurnerandConstable makes a compelling case for seeing them not as enemies, but finally as equals."

My review #ExhibitiononScreen #landscapes #Turner #Constable

www.thereviewshub.com/exhibition-o...

Film review: Wuthering Heights - "Fennell interprets obsession for passion" | Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth. There are few books that shorthand themselves so readily as Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. Windswept moors, doomed lovers, youthful angst. A passionate, yearning love for the ages. It’s...

"In ignoring an entire chunk of the novel, #WutheringHeights in Emerald Fennell’s edit becomes less about screen time, and more about presenting Emily Bronte’s novel not in its complexity, but as a single note."

Another review to add to the discourse!

plymouthartscinema.org/film-review-...

Becoming Victoria Wood - U&Gold - The Reviews Hub Director: Catherine Abbott The challenge, in making a film about Victoria Wood, is telling us something we don’t already know. A national treasure and comedy legend, Wood is instantly recalled in her ...

"Victoria Wood is instantly recalled in her self-penned jokes. Her blend of monologue and song saw Wood gleefully exploring sex, body image and class; immortalising Woman’s Weekly in the process."

Read my review of #BecomingVictoriaWood #comedy #VictoriaWood

www.thereviewshub.com/becoming-vic...

Book Review:  It’s Not Where You Start - Scott Kyle - The Reviews Hub The showbiz autobiography genre is now so ubiquitous that we know what to expect: a heavily edited version of events, often ghost-written. If you want to really know that celebrity, the truth won’t be...

My review of celebrity autobiography "It's Not Where You Start" by #ScottKyle #books #Outlander
www.thereviewshub.com/book-review-...

Film Review: Hamnet - "Buckley’s interpretation of Agnes’ grief, and anger, is instinctive and beautifully nuanced." | Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts Universi... It’s fair to say that cinema has found a great deal to mine from Shakespeare. Whether it’s the man himself, hurrying along to the playhouse, trying to stave off writer’s block, in John Madden’s Shakes...

My first film review of 2026! I loved watching #Hamnet and if #JessieBuckley doesn't win the Oscar I will eat my hat. I also took issue with critics calling this film "emotionally manipulative"

plymouthartscinema.org/film-review-...

“Full of great advice” – Writing Creativity and Soul by Sue Monk Kidd “In a society that pushes us to be productive at every waking moment, to get a certain word count done each day or we’re not a proper writer, Kidd’s counter-culture argument for idleness is r…

"As a successful writer, Sue Monk Kidd firmly advocates “creative loitering”, sitting with ideas, resisting a society that pushes us to be endlessly productive...her counter-culture argument for idleness is refreshing."

#SueMonkKidd #WritingCreativityAndSoul

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/11/24/f...

Winding Up the Week #448 This week I look at books read and reviewed, discover some of the best writing about literature on the blogosphere, announce both the Hundred Years Hence Reading Challenge and A Year With Iris Murd…

bookjotter.com/2025/11/22/winding-up-the-week-448/ #AmReading #Books #BookReview #HYH26 #IrisMurdoch2026 @cathybrown746.bsky.social @bookmunch.bsky.social @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social @whisperinggums.bsky.social @scholar1977.bsky.social

“Full of feminist rage” – Poor Creatures by Mairi Kidd “Poor Creatures wears its feminism proudly, and Kidd brings home the realities of being a woman in the 19th century: in a later scene, Isabel suffers a violent miscarriage and her staff merel…

"For fans of #Frankenstein hoping for a blow-by-blow account of how Mary Shelley wrote the novel, #PoorCreatures leaves the creative process to the margins..it's a shame, as when Mairi Kidd hits her feminist groove, it’s thrilling."

#MairiKidd #bookreview

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/11/20/f...

Exhibition on Screen: Caravaggio - The Reviews Hub Writers and Directors: David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky Reviled (or revered) as the Bad Boy of Italian Art, Caravaggio’s reputation seems unassailable. The bravura artist that applied chiaroscuro to...

"The story-telling techniques of #Caravaggio are a departure for #ExhibitionOnScreen but doesn’t exist has to be imagined. The documentary succeeds on all fronts: creativity blended with insight that progresses our understanding of the artist."

My 5* review

www.thereviewshub.com/exhibition-o...

“Bathed, gloriously, in nostalgia” – I Shop, Therefore I Am by Mary Portas “I Shop, Therefore I Am is a rarity: a fashion book with real substance behind the style. It is Mary Portas’ voice, no-nonsense and up-front, that keeps the reader engaged. There is a lot of …

#IShopThereforeIAm is bathed, gloriously, in nostalgia. Mary Portas is critical of fashion as a business, but emphatically in love with its creativity. While it's a view from the inside, her memoir never feels exclusionary."

#MaryPortas @canongate.co.uk

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/b...

“Bathed, gloriously, in nostalgia” – I Shop, Therefore I Am by Mary Portas “I Shop, Therefore I Am is a rarity: a fashion book with real substance behind the style. It is Mary Portas’ voice, no-nonsense and up-front, that keeps the reader engaged. There is a lot of …

#IShopThereforeIAm is bathed, gloriously, in nostalgia. Mary Portas is critical of fashion as a business, but emphatically in love with its creativity. While it's a view from the inside, her memoir never feels exclusionary."

#MaryPortas @canongate.co.uk

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/b...

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Hallowe'en special up now. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, with guests Andrew Male and Laura Varnam in conversation with Una McCormack and Andy Miller. 🌬️🎃🧟 @andrewmale.bsky.social @drlauravarnam.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social @iammilliam.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/0Zde...

a woman with red hair is singing into a microphone in a dark room . ALT: a woman with red hair is singing into a microphone in a dark room .

Yes!!

“It covers everything” – Exquisite Nothingness: The Novels of Yukio Mishima by David Vernon Helen Tope reviews Exquisite Nothingness: The Novels of Yukio Mishima by David Vernon

"The challenge in reading Mishima is to see past his gory, sensationalist death. David Vernon examines the writer to reveal a more complicated artist than his far-right political views would suggest."

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/i...

Review #ExquisiteNothingness #DavidVernon #Mishima

“His best yet” – Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet “In the way that Burnet unsteadies the reader, it will bring to mind Margaret Atwood’s 1996 novel Alias Grace, which in its treatment of a real-life crime, and perceived / real madness, has a…

"In fictionalising a serious crime, Benbecula is more than an artistic experiment. Burnet’s refusal to editorialise, and draw moral boundaries, makes this novella deeply profound and ambitious"

My review of #Benbecula #books #novels #GraemeMacraeBurnet

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/h...

“Her fiction is a warning” – Time Tunnel by Eileen Chang (trans. Karen S. Kingsbury / Jie Zhang) “It is only recently that Eileen Chang has undergone a critical re-evaluation; much needed as it underlines the realist tones of her writing. What Time Tunnel proves is that her political fer…

"A progression emerges in Eileen Chang’s fiction: the increasing vocalisation of ideas on men, women, culture, identity. #TimeTunnel proves that her political fervour is never too far from the surface."

@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social #TimeTunnel #EileenChang

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/h...

“Her fiction is a warning” – Time Tunnel by Eileen Chang (trans. Karen S. Kingsbury / Jie Zhang) “It is only recently that Eileen Chang has undergone a critical re-evaluation; much needed as it underlines the realist tones of her writing. What Time Tunnel proves is that her political fer…

"A progression emerges in Eileen Chang’s fiction: the increasing vocalisation of ideas on men, women, culture, identity. #TimeTunnel proves that her political fervour is never too far from the surface."

@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social #TimeTunnel #EileenChang

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/h...

“His best yet” – Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet “In the way that Burnet unsteadies the reader, it will bring to mind Margaret Atwood’s 1996 novel Alias Grace, which in its treatment of a real-life crime, and perceived / real madness, has a…

"In fictionalising a serious crime, Benbecula is more than an artistic experiment. Burnet’s refusal to editorialise, and draw moral boundaries, makes this novella deeply profound and ambitious"

My review of #Benbecula #books #novels #GraemeMacraeBurnet

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/h...

“It covers everything” – Exquisite Nothingness: The Novels of Yukio Mishima by David Vernon Helen Tope reviews Exquisite Nothingness: The Novels of Yukio Mishima by David Vernon

"The challenge in reading Mishima is to see past his gory, sensationalist death. David Vernon examines the writer to reveal a more complicated artist than his far-right political views would suggest."

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/i...

Review #ExquisiteNothingness #DavidVernon #Mishima

Mr. Blake At Your Service! - The Reviews Hub Writers: Christel Henon and Gilles Legardinier Director: Gilles Legardinier If there’s an actor who likes to keep us on our toes, it’s John Malkovich. We’re used to seeing him immersed in aspects of t...

www.thereviewshub.com/mr-blake-at-...

"The film is not without its issues...but Malkovich, in comedy mode, is genuinely charming"

My review of #MrBlakeAtYourService #JohnMalkovich #filmreview

“A uniquely frustrating experience” – The Cultural Tutor by Sheehan Quirke “When it comes to books published on the back of Instagram success, it’s quite reasonable to have low expectations. The publishing path to lucrative cash grabs is strewn with biographies ‘wri…

"In trying to impress and pander to the Instagram crowd, Sheehan Quirke has created a book that is structurally incoherent and stylistically uneven...there are interesting morsels to be discovered, but the reader simply needs more"
#TheCulturalTutor #books
bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/a...

Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism - The Reviews Hub Director: Fiona Cunningham-Reid Sharply merging the personal with the political, Fiona Cunningham-Reid’s documentary, Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism, doesn’t just look at what it’s like to be a...

www.thereviewshub.com/ackroyd-harv...

Read my review of #TheArtOfActivism #documentary #climatecrisis #AckroydHarvey

“Romantic, Pragmatic, Feminist”: Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility | Plymouth Arts Cinema | Independent Cinema for Everyone | located at Arts University Plymouth. Although it doesn’t get the same attention as Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion or even Emma, Sense and Sensibility can lay claim to being Jane Austen’s literary debut. Published in 1811, it did well. Its original critics described the novel’s plot as “probable, highly pleasing and interesting”. While she didn’t get the literary hoopla of a...

Thirty years on, #SenseandSensibility can still be watched and understood by a complete newcomer to Jane Austen. But Thompson doesn’t simplify: she clarifies; making us look past the costumes and into the heart of the drama."

#EmmaThompson #JaneAusten

plymouthartscinema.org/romantic-pra...

Start (and keep) reading | Short Book September - the PRSD Get those pages turning and dive into Shorty September with a month of reading books under 200 pages. Say hello to Short Book September

Want to get back into the reading habit? Here's my guide to the best classics, new and old. And they're all under 200 pages. #shortyseptember #reading #bookrecommendations

www.theprsd.co.uk/2025/09/05/s...

“A searing portrayal of inequality” – Greyhound by Joanna Pocock “Pocock’s journey may have started as an intensely personal exploration of grief and loss, but what unfolds in Greyhound is a searing portrayal of gaping inequalities. However, Pocock’s sense…

"Joanna Pocock’s #Greyhound is a searing portrayal of gaping inequalities. Her calculation of what we are losing – to corporate greed, to economic elitism – is vast"

#JoannaPocock #Greyhound #memoir #travel #economics @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/09/07/a...

Start (and keep) reading | Short Book September - the PRSD Get those pages turning and dive into Shorty September with a month of reading books under 200 pages. Say hello to Short Book September

Want to get back into the reading habit? Here's my guide to the best classics, new and old. And they're all under 200 pages. #shortyseptember #reading #bookrecommendations

www.theprsd.co.uk/2025/09/05/s...

“A quick fix is never the answer” – Drystone: A Life Rebuilt by Kristie De Garis “While De Garis’ memoir has its share of bleakness, Drystone is filled with moments of humour. Her writing style makes for a readable, and emotionally balanced, experience. De Garis’ portrait…

"While the metaphor of drystone walling – you must take apart a wall before you can build it back stronger – could weigh heavily, De Garis uses it sparingly and effectively."

My review of #DrystoneALifeRebuilt by @kristiedegaris.bsky.social #nonfiction #book

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/a...

“A quick fix is never the answer” – Drystone: A Life Rebuilt by Kristie De Garis “While De Garis’ memoir has its share of bleakness, Drystone is filled with moments of humour. Her writing style makes for a readable, and emotionally balanced, experience. De Garis’ portrait…

Really in-depth review of my book 'Drystone' from Bookmunch. Grateful that they picked up not just on the story, but on the craft - the restraint, the humour, and the wider social critique I hoped would come through.

You can read it here:

bookmunch.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/a...

#Books #Scotland

Book Review: You’ll Like It When You Get There: A Life Lived Reluctantly by Rhys James - The Reviews Hub While they’re the lifeblood of the publishing industry, not all celebrity memoirs are created equal. For every David Niven, sparkling and poignant, there is Alan Shearer’s famous confession that he celebrated a championship win by creosoting his fence. Sadly, not a euphemism. Throwing his hat into the ring is comedian Rhys James. Not even close

"James’s ability to laugh at himself, at his own discomfort, is a refreshing antidote to every self-aggrandising memoir you may have had the misfortune to read. As any good publisher knows, if sex sells, humiliation is a close second."

#RhysJames #memoir #book

www.thereviewshub.com/book-review-...