Margaret Forster
No Nearer an Answer
As If
By Blake Morrison
(Granta Books 240 pp £15.99)
Did you, or did you not, devour every word reported during the trial of the two ten-year-old boys for the murder of the toddler James Bulger? If you did not, and were disgusted by those who did, labelling them ghouls, then you will think of this book about the case as some sort of depraved cashing-in. But if you did anxiously and avidly search for information and enlightenment, as Blake Morrison did (as I myself did), then it will make complete sense to you - you will agree that it is no good shuddering and saying that particular crime was too awful even to think about. It has to be thought about. It must be.
Blake Morrison, a man on his own admission obsessed by the case, has done a lot of thinking and also a lot of feeling. His book is a sort of on-going meditation, set very firmly in both a literary and philosophical framework, and very far from being a cheap, voyeuristic
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
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk