Lucky Jim is Kingsley Amis’ first novel, published in 1954, and is regarded by some as a modern classic. A comedic novel, it’s the story of James Dixon (Jim), a lecturer at a provincial university. The events take place over several weeks at the end of his first year in the job, it covers his…
Does Anything Eat Wasps? is a selection of questions from ‘The Last Word’ section of the New Scientist magazine. The column was started in 1994, when the internet was in its infancy. In 2005, when the book was published, the internet was well established but readers were still sending in questions! Now, twenty years after…
Nothing…Except My Genius is a collection of quotes by Oscar Wilde. It’s a very slim book, only 108 pages, but it does have some interesting quotes. The first 20 pages are taken up by an essay by Stephen Fry on playing Oscar Wilde in the 1997 film Wilde. Actually, the essay is as much about Wilde…
Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman is a collection of eight short stories about a young man who turns to burglary to earn some money. He is joined by ‘Bunny’, who he knew as a boy at their public school. Together they burgle jewellery shops and the homes of the nouveau riches. Thanks to Raffles’ meticulous planning…
