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Continue reading →: Book Review: Rule, Nostalgia by Hannah Rose Woods
“…we always look back to a time that didn’t exist.” Hannah Rose Woods has crafted a superb book that entertains as much as it does illuminates and does so without trying to be witty or find some forced clever idea that doesn’t work. Instead, she writes with the absolute precision…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
“We’re losing nature in huge swathes and not realising it.“ I reviewed Macfarlane’s ‘Lost Spells’ a little while ago after reviewing a wonderful production at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake. Although the production was named after the Lost Spells, it was very much based both on that book and this…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover
“The novel is so badly written I found it almost offensive to read” I had this book recommended to me as something I might like. How wrong that person was (you think you know someone eh?). The fact that some people (including the aforementioned recommender) liked this novel is the…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Claudius the God by Robert Graves
Having taken, quite literally, decades to get around to read my copy of I Claudius, I took a mere handful of days to read this sequel. That’s how much I was impressed (or more accurately, turned) by Robert Graves’ first book. This book takes up where the first left off…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Abolish the Monarchy by Graham Smith
For the purposes of transparency, I’ll state that I’ve been anti-monarchist for my entire adult life. It is with the death of Elizabeth that I became ardently anti-monarchist. I wish Smith’s book had been around much earlier, I would not have wasted time waiting to take up the cause; I…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: How to Be Your Own Therapist by Owen O’Kane
I’m not a great fan of ‘self-help’ books when it comes to medical or mental health. Often they fit in the same category of new-age books by self-styled gurus who spout, at best, pseudo-science and, at worst, complete bullshit. But this book caught my eye. Firstly, it is written by…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Never Good with Horses by Simon Armitage
Having just attended a reading by Simon Armitage in Grasmere, I immediately bought the main book from which he was reading – Never Good with Horses. I’ve liked his poetry for a long while and, as an English teacher, I’ve been grateful for his work many a time. His poems…
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Continue reading →: An Audience with Simon Armitage, Ambleside
22nd August, Daffodil Hotel The UK’s Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage has, apparently, been giving readings hosted by Wordsworth, Grasmere for at least two decades and the occasions are always a sell-out. As the man himself said to the audience, “I think some of you have been coming to my readings…
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) 