Archives for Literature - Page 2
HIP REVIEW: In Harm’s Way
By Teresa ThornhillPublished by Harper Collins, 2024 £ (paperback)REVIEW BY HUGH SULLIVAN This book is subtitled The Memoir of a Child Protection Lawyer. The writer lives locally, having recently retired…
Poetry Corner: Saint Eanswythe
JUDE MONTAGUE Old, old bones What have you got to say? Nothing, you can't talk. You're old, old bones. Maybe you'd say, 'You're stupid.' Or 'We're not stupid, why do…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: The War Below
By Ernest ScheyderPublished by Ithaka, 2025, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON As the war in Ukraine gets ‘interesting’, And with Trump making bizarre attempts to 'buy' Greenland, with threats and…
Poetry Corner: The Low Season
VERNON KEITH FOWLER The tourists have gone but the sea is still here. At the Goat Ledge Café you can still find some cheer: A cup of hot choc with…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Renters Unite!
By Jacob StringerPublished by Pluto Books, 2025, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON Hastings, and indeed many places in England, is experiencing a significant rise in rental prices, ‘driven by demand’…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Reclaiming the Future
By Simon HannahPublished by Pluto Books, 2024, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON The foreword to this excellent book is by John McDonnell MP, who contextualises Hannah’s topic by noting that…
HIP REVIEW: Demon Copperhead
By Barbara KingsolverPublished by Faber 2022REVIEW BY KATE WATERS I have just read and greatly enjoyed this excellent book Demon Copperhead by the American novelist Barbara Kingsolver (available from Hastings…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Shaping for Mediocrity
By Gibson Burrell, Ronald Hartz, David Harvie, Geoff Lightfoot, Simon Lilley ‘and friends’Published by Zer0 Books, 2024, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON Over the last few decades, a growing ‘management…
Poetry Corner: MORNING IN MAGDALENMA
JUDE MONTAGUE I went into the church, not to pray but to see. The Icons hung themselves over wood paneling, didn't look at me. They were already a bit out…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: How To Lose a Country
By Ece TemelkuranPublished by Canongate, 2024, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON Canongate have an imprint called The Canons, reprinting important titles. This book is a new edition of a 2019…
HIP LITERATURE NEWS: Bavard Nonsense
Letters From Cicely launch Tim B’vard, founder and host of local live entertainment show, the Bavard Bar, a blend of talk and comedy, has just published an illustrated book of…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Hellebore’s 2024 Yuletide Hauntings & other Occult and Uncanny Zines
REVIEW BY TIM BARTON On December 7th this year, Bookbuster ran a stall at the Mint House in Pevensey. This was a great venue for an esoteric fayre, and this…
Poetry Corner: And all because you ignored a comma
ALISON YOUNG I started to write you a message but I couldn’t think what to say; I wrote, “Hi,” your name, and pressed send by mistake But you didn’t wait…
HIP BOOK REVIEW: Bodichon
By Mary UptonTradewinds Publishing, 2024, rrp £ BY PETE DONOHUE A novel featuring a protagonist born into British colonial landed society a decade before Victoria takes the throne, is far…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – Oil Be Damned: Part Four
Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown By Andreas Malm & Wim CartonPublished by Verso, 2024, rrp £25REVIEW BY TIM BARTON On Monday 11 November, COP29 Azerbaijan began, in…
Poetry Corner: DISORIENTATION
OLI SPLEEN Disorientation descends A confusion midst euphoria And when this haze-cloud ends My focus forms to flesh Absurdity of skin and sinew Perceiving from a lens, organic Specific to…
HIP BOOK REVIEW: My Battle of Hastings
By Xiaolu GuoPublished by Chatto & Windus. £ BY HUGH SULLIVAN Xiaolu Guo, an award-winning writer and film-maker, spent the year 2022 living alone in a small one-bedroom flat on…
Poetry Corner: HOLLOW MOON
OLI SPLEEN I gaze upon a hollow moon And doubt all I held dear A dark cloud is descending And this world is filled with fear We’re set adrift upon…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: How Migration Really Works
By Hein de HaasPublished by Penguin, £ BY TIM BARTON In the current divisive cultural climate, this book is a great curative to what the author describes as ‘21 myths’…
Poetry Corner: Anghofio
OFELIA FERCH RHOS I forget you, fy nghariad. the slope of your shoulder becomes the hard line of your back: mountains. snow. I could forget your face now. soft tide…
Hastings Week Poetry Competition
The Annual Hastings Week Poetry Competition, organised by Councillor James Bacon and the Mayor, Councillor Judy Rogers, will be going ahead once again. This year, the theme is ‘Hastings Memories’…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Another England
By Caroline LucasPublished by Hutchinson Heinemann, £22REVIEW BY TIM BARTON Ex-Green MP Caroline Lucas sets out, in her new book, to suggest ‘how to reclaim our national story’. Reclaim it…
Poetry Corner
Harbour Trip Sequence JOHN R PARSONS humming in underpass echoes off paintings of whales below Castle Hill one legged gulls on mast tops] harbour walk I sit on polystyrene for…
HIP REVIEW: Lovebroken, a memoir
By Finley de WittTroubador Publishing Paperback, 336 pages, £ BY FRAN ELLERY Lovebroken is a memoir by Hastings writer and trauma specialist, Finley de Witt (“For anyone who’s ever struggled…
Poetry Corner
The naked cyclist VERNON KEITH FOWLER The wind was whistling by the shore And through the rowers’ rollocks And as the naked cyclist passed It whistled through his bollocks. The…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain
By Will HuttonPublished by Head of Zeus, £ BY TIM BARTON It is close to 30 years since Hutton’s most influential book, The State We’re In, first came out. In…
Poetry Corner
kim has a beach hut PETE DONOHUE in that tideturn brainspace shingle thoughts revolve around the daystar seagull children shriek excitement men in hats & yoga women stroke the surf…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: The Petroleum Papers
By Geoff DembickiPublished by Greystone Books, £ BY TIM BARTON The website for Left Foot Forward recently analysed data on far-right party funding, and reported that “climate disinformation database DeSmog”…
Poetry Corner: THE MIRROR
OLI SPLEEN If you were me And could see what I have seen Then you would know the longing And the heartache And the listless lonely days I had a…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW: Crack-Up Capitalism
By Quinn SlobodianPublished by PenguinREVIEW BY TIM BARTON ‘Americans are deeply sceptical of once well-regarded institutions such as universities, the media and the public health system, and do not trust…
HIP CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: 8-Year-Old Hastings Girl Sees Her First Book Published
PETE DONOHUE Frida Bee Barnard Mason is so excited to have had her first book, The Headless Ghost, The Robot and The Boy, published in May by Ginger Fyre Press.…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism
By George Monbiot & Peter HutchinsonPublished by Allan LaneREVIEW BY TIM BARTON The first wave of ‘neoliberal’ ideology was influenced by a century-long tradition beginning with Charles Gide, and moving…
Poetry Corner
Moving Stillness (at Rye Harbour Discovery Centre) BEN FAIRLIGHT Heron and Egret pin the in-flowing shallows, Wait and watch for the right wiggle In water and ripple. Yellow-speared grey, black-spiked…
HIP REVIEW: How To Solve Murders Like a Lady
By Hannah DolbyPublished by Bloomsbury, paperback £ BY DAVID E P DENNIS This is a cake and brandy kind of book – rich, fruity, and ; Not only that, but…
Poetry Corner: two-channel system
PETE DONOHUE well there i was happily dribbling into my beard when up i woke in a sudden start on a tired sofa the tv volume up too high &…
Using Your Grief to Decorate Newspapers
MERLIN BETTS Becky StrongSalena Godden The title here is a line that sticks with me, especially as election time comes round, and don’t worry – the irony is not lost.…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – Against Landlords: How to Solve the Housing Crisis
By Nick BanoPublished by Verso, rrp £ BY TIM BARTON Nick Bano is a barrister and has a different take on the causes of our current housing crisis than is…
Poetry Corner: Hastings Woman
BEN FAIRLIGHT Our sea front is all curvy lines and flowing smiles, Rock-striped huts and hats that glint for miles Along sand and shingle and rainbow-dot dresses. And then, across…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – Manifesto: The Battle for Green Britain
By Dale VinceIndependently Penguin, rrp £ BY RICHARD PRICE Are you dispirited because of the climate and biodiversity emergency, and the fact that the urgency of these issues is ignored…
Poetry Corner: Water, Water Everywhere and A Load of Old Bull To Make You Thirsty Enough to Think
WILLIAM BULLIN When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman? When Eve named the flowers and Adam, the bears, Who got the bonuses and who sold the…