Monthly Archives: February 2023

The first part of a feature on the work of Angela Slatter that originally appeared in Black Static #21:- A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAMING: ANGELA SLATTER Angela Slatter is one of the new breed of Australian writers of speculative fiction who in recent … Continue reading →

The second track from Houses of the Holy, the first Led Zeppelin album to have a title.

This post follows on from Books Read in 2011, which I posted at the end of November 2022. And for 2012 I read one hundred and fifty books, thirty up from the total in 2011, though again with some duplications (I … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in Black Static #21:- WHITE IS FOR WITCHING (Picador paperback, 247pp, ￡7.99) by Helen Oyeyemi is a haunted house story and a lot else besides, and at times you feel that the supernatural elements are … Continue reading →

A bear ingests a large quantity of cocaine and goes on the rampage (supposedly based on true events).

A review that originally appeared in Black Static #21:- GIRL IN THE WOODS (Sphere paperback, 432pp, ￡7.99) by Jennifer McMahon also has a double narrative, events in the present day intercut with incidents from the past that help to illuminate … Continue reading →

The title track from David Bowie’s 6th album, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Back in the day when I wrote and submitted stories, an editor who’d seen rather more of them than was good for either of us told me that my recurring themes were sex and death (not necessarily in the same … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in Black Static #21:- I reviewed a novel by Sarah Rayne in The Third Alternative way back when, and didn’t like it very much. I’d probably have given her new one a miss, except the … Continue reading →

The first Marvel of the year.