Shouting at the Window
A man takes a train journey between two (unnamed) cities. Haynes - we only ever get to know his surname - is on the margins of society: a petty criminal, living from day-to-day, who has had to flee from his usual territory to somewhere more secure...
On the Carousel
On the Carousel is the story of a young man’s journey through the decade – against the background of Thatcherism and Madonna and Cabbage Patch Dolls – as he enjoys the benefits of success, but then starts to re-assess his values and priorities...
Latest from the Blog
A Scrooge Mystery by Andreina Cordani (2025)
18th January 2026 It is a few days before Christmas in 1844, nearly a full year on from the events of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The enlightened Ebenezer Scrooge – now a reformed character and an enthusiastic supporter of the festival – is paying one of his occasional visits to the local graveyard for…
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962)
24th December 2025 It is a day in January 1951. The prisoner (or zek) is awakened by the five o’clock reveille sounded – by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the staff quarters – for those in his freezing barrack hut. “The clanging ceased, but everything outside still…
The Sorrow of Belgium (Het Verdriet van België) by Hugo Claus (1983)
21st October 2025 The Sorrow of Belgium is generally recognised to be one of the most significant 20th Century novels written in Dutch. It is a long read – just over 600 pages – of which the first 40 per cent or so set the scene in 1939 with the remainder then taking the narrative…
JR Alexander 