Appetite – DaneCobain.com

William Sieghart – The Forward Book of Poetry 2018 | Review

Title: The Forward Book of Poetry 2018

Author: William Sieghart

Type: Poetry

Page Count/Review Word Count: 158

Rating: 4*/5

William Sieghart – The Forward Book of Poetry 2018

This is yet another of the books that I won as part of a National Poetry Day competition, and this one gathers together some of the best poetry from across the UK and Ireland throughout 2017. That makes it a great little anthology of contemporary poetry and a fantastic book to get started with if you want to see what modern poets are working on. This isn’t Wordsworth, it’s contemporary poetry that asks the reader a lot of contemporary questions.

I was actually impressed by the quality of the work in this, even though I was already expecting to enjoy it, and I also thought it was just the right length. Any longer and I might have got bored, but this whet my appetite and then dished up several courses of delicious, nutritious poetry.

William Sieghart

Click here to buy The Forward Book of Poetry 2018.

Terence Bailey – Dead in Time | Review

Title: Dead in Time

Author: Terence Bailey

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 298

Rating: 4*/5

Terence Bailey – Dead in Time

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

This book impressed me because I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it. In fact, I accepted it for review for two key reasons – it’s a crime novel and it’s set predominantly in Wales. I like crime novels, and I also like crime novels that are set in Britain – especially when they’re not set in London. That’s why I like Peter James’ Roy Grace series – he does a great job of portraying Brighton and it evokes a real sense that you’re wandering along the seafront.

What I didn’t realise – at least, not until I started reading this – is that it has elements of the supernatural, touching on psychic abilities and even using it as a main plot device. For me, that would usually be a turn off, but Bailey did a great job of blending supernatural elements with a police procedural, and the result is a page-turner of a book that makes it easy for you to suspend your disbelief and to just enjoy the book for what it is, rather than trying to pick it apart.

It’s also the first book of the series, and while I won’t spoil the plot by telling you what happens, I can say it ends in such a way that it left me wanting more, and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. This book, then, whets the readers appetite, but it also leaves you feeling hungry for the main course. There are plenty of different directions that the author could take this, so I guess we’ll see.