| Short stories that take us to dangerous places Dec 25th 2012, 23:47 If a lot of recent fiction is inward-looking, safe, middle-class and domestic, then these three collections provide a bracing antidote. All of them are concerned with outcasts and loners, the has-beens and never-weres, the powerless and underprivileged, territory that often is left unexplored by the cosmopolitan, bicoastal writers who dominate the literary landscape. This is fiction taken straight, with no chaser. Read full article >>   |  | Bernard Cornwell's '1356' reviewed Dec 25th 2012, 23:45 Bernard Cornwell is a gifted and prolific historical novelist who seems at home in virtually every era, from the Napoleonic Wars (the Richard Sharpe series), to the American Revolution ("The Fort"), to the world of prehistory ("Stonehenge"). In "1356," Cornwell turns his attention to the Hundred Years' War waged between England and France for control of the disputed French throne. Its specific focus is the largely forgotten Battle of Poitiers, in which hungry, exhausted British troops defeated a well-fed, well-rested, numerically superior force of French soldiers. Read full article >>   | | Three New Year's Eve party options Dec 25th 2012, 22:53 As Ella Fitzgerald sings in what I'm just going to go ahead and declare the best cover of a holiday standard: "What are you doing New Year's Eve?" Unlike the song asks, however, it is not too early in the game. It is really late in the game. Fourth-quarter late. Ninth-inning late. Match-point late. Have I covered all necessary lateness-in-game descriptions here? If you haven't made plans already, to quote another great songstress of our time: Tik Tok, kids. Read full article >>   | |
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