Neil Hopcroft

[Read aloud to Adelle] Queer Georgians by Anthony Delaney This book collects some stories about gender non-conforming people in Georgian times, from before we had the understanding and rich language we now have to describe people outside the heteronormative world. We have been handed down little in the way of unbiased information about these people, […]

[Audiobook] The Last Overland by Alex Bescoby This book recounts the story of an expedition following the return path from the First Overland, a journey from London to Singapore in 1955. A documentary of which launched the career of David Attenborough. The background to this journey and the planning for it are covered. The original […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] Beyond Siberia by Christina Dodwell I found this book in large print lurking in a National Trust second hand bookshop, and I have yet to find a way to resist travel books, especially when they involve tundra. As a book published in 1993 this offers a window into a parochial world […]

[Audiobook] The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr I have, for a while, been interested in the process of the generation of fictional stories. My interested was piqued by a screenwriting session at Em-fest before Christmas and I wanted to find out more. Also, for a long time, I have been thinking that fiction is […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] The Cat who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa This is another gentle Japanese cat story, following the story of Rintaro, a high school student who is left bereft by the death of his beloved grandfather, a reclusive owner of a second hand bookshop. Rintaro is moping around in the bookshop one […]

[Read while waiting for appointments] All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland Coupland is generally easy reading for me, with rambling sentence structures that flow with the consciousness and ordinary seeming characters getting themselves into extraordinary relationships with each other and the world in general. He holds a mirror up to show the darkness of […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] Idoru by William Gibson This book revolves around Rez, the lead singer of the Lo/Rez pop group, with two main story arcs following Chia, a fan club member from Seattle, and Laney, a quantitative analyst of data. Both brought to Tokyo because of rumours of the marriage of Rez with Rei […]

This is the first year I have reviewed all the books I have read (well, all bar two, reviews of which will be coming up over the next couple of weeks) – so time for a look back at those reviews. Best book of the year Best non-fiction book of the year Worst book of […]

[Audiobook] Jet Man – The Making and Breaking of Frank Whittle, Genius of the Jet Revolution This book follows the genesis of the jet engine from idea through to implementation. A fraught journey lead by the tenacious but unstable Frank Whittle. It starts with his vision for an interceptor plane powered by a new type […]

[Read aloud to Adelle] Islands of Abandonment – Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn When I bought this book the woman behind the till told me to look out for the cows, they’re amazing. She wasn’t wrong. This book is a tour of sites abandoned by humans, left for nature to reclaim because […]