The great pleasure, at the risk of sounding glib, of making my way through The Women’s Prize longlist each year is to read about cultures and circumstances I have little to no knowledge of. One of the most interesting and refreshing themes of this year’s selection was cross-cultural collaboration; from the Polish–Jewish–Scottish–Palestinian intergenerational family panoramaContinue reading “Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist and Shortlist 2025: Review”
Author Archives: hollyhamiltonwrites
2023: A Reader’s Top 5
110 books in 2023! alongside the mania of the women’s prize longlist (read more here), i cried, giggled, seethed, plodded, and raced through a moveable feast of treats this year, in both paper and audiobook form. here are my highlights. warning! spoilers ahead. t.w. conflict, trauma, opioid and alcohol addiction, dementia, loss, domestic abuse, childContinue reading “2023: A Reader’s Top 5”
Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2023: Review
Over the last few years, I’ve made it my very pleasant mission to work through the annual Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, cheering along when a favourite eventually makes the shortlist or reeling in outrage when another doesn’t. It’s a challenge – sixteen books in six weeks – but doing so has brought my attentionContinue reading “Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2023: Review”
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, by Bill Gates
There is a lot of good in “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”, but Gates doesn’t always hit the mark regarding where responsibility lies. Reading a book by Bill Gates involves the preexisting knowledge that you are delving into the expertise of a man best known for his work not only in tech but inContinue reading “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, by Bill Gates”
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
If you are a reader who expects a book about trees to be somewhat dry, then The Overstory will subvert these expectations. So says Dr Patricia Westerford, in her closing lecture to a room of environmentalists in the final pages of The Overstory. As one of the nine main characters in the book, it is sheContinue reading “The Overstory, by Richard Powers”
The New Wilderness, by Diane Cook
Diane Cook sets up an apocalyptic landscape where climate change and global warming has destroyed the world we know, told through the metaphor of a mother and child relationship. Set in a dystopian future where only three locations exist — “The City,” “The Wilderness” and the mysterious “Promised Lands” — Diane Cook sets up an apocalyptic landscape where climate change andContinue reading “The New Wilderness, by Diane Cook”
The Versions of Us, by Laura Barnett
Laura Barnett’s ‘The Versions of Us’ refuses to be a cliché. Three different versions of Eva and Jim’s story are told adjacently, after a pivotal meeting in which Eva is knocked off her bike as a Cambridge student in the 1950s. The premise of the novel hinges on the question of ‘what if’ – howContinue reading “The Versions of Us, by Laura Barnett”
we’ll always have paris
“We’ll always have Paris” - Rick Blaine, Casablanca. (1942) Recently, I’ve noticed a trend in current book publishing. I’ve always been obsessed with reading and writing about Paris, but recently on mainstream bookshelves are stories about and centred around the city. Perhaps it’s the hangover of a change in the collective psyche of the world in its focusContinue reading “we’ll always have paris”
serpent’s sweetness
Serpent’s Sweetness As time cures the serpent’s bite fading on my skin, its poison slowly seeps in, through my veins, lips legs My body deceived, the poisoned bloodstream sanctified in my perception. The serpent seeds and I sew a sweetened image into my sight, my sense.
on a train to wimbledon
written in 2016 At 11:30am, I notice an elderly woman opposite to me in the train carriage, as I speed towards Kings Cross. Irritably, she orders a train-sized bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a kit-kat. What may seem like an ordinary situation strikes me as more meaningful. I consider whether, in a similar situation, on aContinue reading “on a train to wimbledon”
hollyhamiltonwrites 