Book Reviews – Deborah Siddoway

Review of Havisham by Elle Machray

It was with both anticipation and trepidation that I began reading Havisham, a novel which undertakes to tell the story of Miss Havisham in a new way, while also promising that she will ‘exceed all expectations’ (sigh). As someone who has spent many years of my life devoted to the study and enjoyment of Dickens,Continue reading “Review of Havisham by Elle Machray”

Reviewing Your Own Novel

Here we go again: putting a finished novel out on submission, hoping against all hope that somehow, it manages to find the right home. The novel in question has been a work of passion for me, written as I finished off my PhD, the story somehow never managing to leave me, even as the pressuresContinue reading “Reviewing Your Own Novel”

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh: Thoughts

I received this book as part of a launch party with New Writing North, where the author, Sarah Marsh, treated us to a reading of the beginning of the novel. I thought I was going to love the novel, especially as the reading initially put me in mind of Hetty Sorrel from George Eliot’s AdamContinue reading “A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh: Thoughts”