Adrian Turpin
Brushes With Fate
Nimrod’s Shadow
By Chris Paling
Portobello 343pp £12.99
As anyone who saw Anthony Hopkins in Surviving Picasso knows to their cost, an artist’s life can make for an indifferent film. Fortunately, the page is more forgiving. Chris Paling’s new novel, Nimrod’s Shadow, takes the familiar motif of the genius in the garret and teases from it something more thoughtful than the customary, big-screen awe in the face of artistic creation.
Paling’s penurious (and wholly fictional) painter is T F Reilly, an Edwardian Londoner who shares his studio with his beloved Jack Russell, Nimrod. On the eve of his first exhibition he receives a visit from an admiring critic, Gower, suggesting that his fortunes are about to change. And
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk