Not quite sure how or why I’d never read any Colin Forbes before. Bit of (probably unnecessary) scene-setting before I start. This big, satisfying chunky novel was bought years ago, in a second hand bookshop in Johannesburg, when we lived there, and has travelled back to India with us, and …
Can there be many things better than reading 2 Alexander McCall Smith novels back to back? One day “The Forgotten Affairs of Youth”. The next day, “The Importance of being seven”. The joys of being on holiday. Both of these novels are set in Edinburgh, but in different parts of …
Any book that has the expression “a rattling good read” quoted on its cover sounds ideal for holiday reading, and indeed, this big fat first novel, published in 2003, was a nicely satisfying pick for a rainy European holiday. I have a pronounced weakness for any book about South Africa …
“People like Ourselves” by the South African novelist Pamela Jooste is both engaging, but also ever so slightly disappointing at the end. Perhaps it’s because I lived in Johannesburg for several very happy years, in a gated community that is featured in the novel, that I felt an instant connection …
