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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries XIV – The Beggar of Volubilis by Caroline Lawrence
“…a damned good yarn that stretches things a little bit…” After the super story that was book XIII, it was going to be a hard act to follow for Caroline Lawrence. She doesn’t quite manage it with this outing but then there’s a sense that this may be intentional. We’re…
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Continue reading →: For Whom the Book Tolls Episode 5: End Times by Peter Turchin and The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Our fifth outing – and at our age we’re struggling to do the counting now! Nicholas and I discuss a non-fiction book – End Times by Peter Turchin – which leads to a discussion of a work of fiction – The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. What makes political…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: End Times by Peter Turchin
“…a terrific book to get the brain juices going…(but) doesn’t put its money where its mouth is…” This was a fascinating book suggested to me by my fellow podcaster, Nicholas Graham, and one we may well talk about in our next podcast. End Times is far from a perfect work,…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries XIII – The Slave-girl from Jerusalem by Caroline Lawrence
“…I was totally unprepared for the ending…” We’re back with our old friends, the child detectives, and many of their companions. This time we’ve got a classic story: murder victims and a slave-girl who’s in the frame for the crime. Along the way, Lawrence gives us a whole stack of…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Count Zero by William Gibson
“…this isn’t an engaging novel that makes me want to turn the next page…” Having attempted Gibson’s first ‘classic’ sci-fi novel, Neuromancer, and realising there’s at least two further books in the series, I figured I’d better get started on the second before I forgot the premise of the original.…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
“All fans of this gang will want to read this book…” If you’ve read my previous reviews of The Thursday Murder Club and The Man Who Died Twice then it will come as no surprise that I’m going to say I loved this third instalment of this little gang of…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
“…the story was a friend along the way, quietly holding my hand for a while…” It’s been a while since I read a book by Matt Haig. The last one I reviewed was The Humans and I ended up giving quite a favourable review. This very much surprised me because…
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Continue reading →: A Brief Guide to Writing: 9 – Instant Plots
Or How to Become a Thief “…I want to give you…the principle behind all the various tricks and methods. It’s this: steal the plot…” If you want to write fiction – be it a novel, short story, screenplay or whatever – you need to plot. There are some out there…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Roman Mysteries XII – The Charioteer of Delphi by Caroline Lawrence
“The plot was every bit as engaging as the first books…” We’re back to the kind of writing Caroline Lawrence was coming up with at the beginning of this wonderful series of books telling the stories of four young would-be detectives in ancient Roman times. There’s no love intrigues or…
Hello, I’m Ken.
Welcome to Write Out Loud, my blog dedicated to all sorts of things to do with writing.
This page will be updated constantly every week with book reviews and writing-related stuff.
The blog is the baby sister of my personal blog kenthinksaloud where I write ‘Monday Murmurings’—insights into life and philosophy. Get a clever take on politics with ‘Wednesday Banker,’ and ‘Future Friday’ for the latest in psychology, environment, and tech.
I will use this blog to give helpful advice, tips, tricks and resources as I come across them to other writers and to advertise my own writing especially as my books start to be published.
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Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing) 