Words


The past few weeks have been something of a Nordic escape – a binge into a series of crime novels written by Jorn Lier Horst. By my reckoning he’s the new Henning Mankell.  He makes a worthy successor to that supreme leader of the Nordic Noir brigade who started really catching our attention only a few decades back. Until then they had remained a secret pleasure to all but those fluent in the authors’ respective tongues. After all, how many Brits know a word of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian or Finnish? Most of them can hardly squeeze out a mangled version… Continue reading

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NAH, it can’t be that good. Surely not. Must be because its cover has a celebrity’s name taking top billing as the author. Another example of vanity publishing, selling by popularity rather than content. Probably ghost written too. Isn’t that how it goes; win the public’s heart through the telly or sport then cash in with a quick book or two? Lurking behind such doubts is the tidal wave of praise for Richard Osman‘s first venture into crime writing. Such a tsunami  has been impossible to avoid. The TV host, producer, creative brain and all-round Mr Nice Guy has won… Continue reading