PositiveThe Irish Examiner (IRE)Norton skilfully interweaves some sections of narrative from the points of view of these, now adult, children ... Norton creates an iconic Irish mammy in the redoubtable person of Moira, Carol’s mother.
Bob Stanley
RaveThe Irish Examiner (IRE)... vying for the title of best music book of the year ... One of the things that a book like this relies on is a good index. This one is a marvel. On encountering a pile of volumes in the entrance of a bookshop readers will thumb through, searching for a particular favourite, now almost lost to knowledge in the obscurity of passing time, and find it, given its due at last. Turn to the back to look up a favourite song or musician and discover a surprisingly chunky entry, with directions to pages which elucidate ... Whilst this sort of treasure hunt is good fun, it is also rewarding to start at the beginning and read right through to the end. The route follows the development of the music; highlighting influences but also bouncing off historical events and mores ... gives a quintessential account of the Birth of Pop, one which will send anyone again and again to their record collection to listen to the greatest artists, well remembered or forgotten, of the 20th century.
Paul Kingsnorth
RaveKirkusKingsnorth deserves points for the hat trick of writing the three novels in the series in distinct linguistic registers that suggest past, present, and future ... Imaginative, moody, brilliantly written—vintage Kingsnorth, that is, and a boon for readers of speculative fiction.
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
RaveThe Irish Examiner (IRE)...it is interesting to consider Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan’s Francis Bacon: Revelations. The husband and wife team from New York portray Bacon’s life and work as an epitome of the twentieth century ... Of 850 pages the writers deploy over 700 of evidence and analysis appended by 150 of notes. In addition the type font is the tiniest, I imagine, permitted by law. All this amounts to a mind-bogglingly large number of words. The impressive looking tome, which took a decade to complete, benefits from some glossy colour plates as well as black and white illustrations and photographs ... The structure of Francis Bacon: Revelations is quite witty ... Stevens and Swan on the other hand, give thousands of telling details thus providing a definitive and compelling account of Bacon’s life, one which goes a long way towards explaining why his art is so explosive and controversial.
