The special collection of popular fiction at Sheffield Hallam University
Live Last read · last published · next check
Book review by George Simmers: This month at the Reading Group, we have looked at the novel reviews in Sheffield newspapers. I found the review of Kim in the Sheffield Independent in October 1901, and was intrigued by it. (a copy of the review is appended at the end of this post.) Kim is a … Continue reading →
Book Review by George Simmers: A while ago I reviewed Naomi Royde-Smith’s Skin-Deep a 1927 novel that moves disturbingly from satire to body-horror. I was intrigued, so wanted to learn more about the author. This post will eventually be a review of her very funny and clever 1925 novel,, The Tortoiseshell Cat, but before that … Continue reading →
Dr. Sylvia Dunkley was a member of the Sheffield Hallam Popular Fiction Reading Group from the beginning. Her reviews have often appeared on this blog, and show her no-nonsense style of thinking about what she read. She especially enjoyed novels about social issues – especially those set in the north of England; her reviews often … Continue reading →
Book Review by George Simmers: This is the novel that changed the law. Or, as A.P. Herbert explains in his foreword to the 1955 paperback, it paved the way for his entering parliament and introducing the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1937. Before 1937, divorce was almost impossible. Only the rich could afford it, and the … Continue reading →
Book Review by Jane V:‘Perhaps one of the finest novels of our (20th) century’ – Graham GreeneLiterary impressionism?A proto-modernist masterpiece? ‘I have, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze. I cannot … Continue reading →
Book review by George Simmers: Later the book would be renamed The Saint Plays with Fire. It’s a good example of popular thirties fiction getting stuck into politics. Simon Templar (alias the Saint, the crimefighter who is never afraid of breaking the law himself) had dealt with conspiracies before, but more recntly his dramatic dealings … Continue reading →
Book review by George Simmers: I was hooked by the first chapter of Matthew Silverman. It shows us the editor of a provincial weekly paper on press night: The rotary press was still printing off the weekly edition of the Messenger, and the vitality in its whirling rollers and rods was too much for the … Continue reading →
Book Review by Margaret B: Fountain Inn is one of the old Inns of Chancery in London and now houses a number of small businesses. Grace, a secretary in one of them loses her job but she is immediately re-employed by the Browns who run one of the other businesses in the Inn, providing all … Continue reading →
Book Review by George Simmers: The Clockwork Man is science fiction 1923-style. It begins at a cricket match in the quintessentially English village of Great Wymering Dr Allingham is batting when a strange figure puts him off his stroke by walking in front of the sheet that is acting as a sight screen. I was … Continue reading →
Book review (Warning – contains spoilers!) by Val H: The Reluctant Widow is hugely enjoyable: well constructed, pacey and funny. The publishers, Heinemann, marketed it as ‘a light and gay romance of Regency days’ (Bookseller, 28 February 1946) and ‘the best of entertainment’ (Edinburgh Evening News, 20 July 1946). But it is not generally reckoned … Continue reading →
