Review: Phoenix by SF Said

Phoenix, by SF Said, with illustrations by Dave McKean, is a science-fiction adventure of galactic scale. When I was a kid, more decades ago now than I care to remember, science fiction made up a significant proportion of my reading. Eleanor Cameron’s The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet was my comfort re-read – I read… Read More

Talk of the Toun

Review: Talk of the Toun by Helen MacKinven

Talk of the Toun, by Helen MacKinven, is a raw, dark, hilarious coming-of-age tale set in 1980s Falkirk. Disclosure: I know Helen through our publisher Cranachan. This hasn’t affected the review in any way – if I hadn’t liked the book, I’d wouldn’t have reviewed it! If you’ve been reading my reviews over the past years, you’ll… Read More

Review: To Wee or Not to Wee by Pamela Butchart, illustrated by Thomas Flintham

They always say that Shakespeare, despite being from four centuries ago, is still relevant, and To Wee or Not to Wee by Pamela Butchart is the book that proves it – in hilarious style. Sitting in the same series as My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat and Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies, To Wee or… Read More

Review: The Case of the Missing Moonstone by Jordan Stratford

The Case of the Missing Moonstone, by Jordan Stratford, is the first case for the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency, the detectives of which are Mary Godwin and Ada Byron – better known to posterity as Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, and Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Byron, mathematical genius, and the world’s first computer programmer…. Read More