[[Category:Entertainment|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author=Emma Marriott
|title=The World of Poldark
|rating=5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=Back in the seventies I watched ''Poldark'' on television: it was enjoyable, but I'll confess that if I'd missed an episode it wouldn't have worried me too much. When the gentleman rebel reappeared in 2015 I had no intention of watching, but a friend saw the first episode and said how good it was. I caught up on iPlayer, almost for politeness - and was hooked. It wasn't just the story - but perhaps I'm more in tune with it now that I was forty years ago - it was the quality of the production which kept me watching week after week. When Emma Marriott's book landed on my desk the temptation to 'just have a quick look' proved far too much for me.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509813616</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alastair Fothergill and Huw Cordey
|summary=Essentially, the three authors (all of whom have long careers in the book industry) revel in the idea of being whining old curmudgeons who miss the good old days of publishing. This unashamed nostalgia provides the focus of the book and allows the writers to recount numerous anecdotes from their days in the publishing business. Whilst the primary audience for this book may well be students of creative writing and media studies, it also serves as an interesting exploration of an aspect of modern history: how a once-burgeoning industry is now a shell of its former self, much like a lot of manufacturing. Because of this, I was disappointed that no space was given to a consideration of how the rise of the e-book and Kindle has directly damaged both the sale of books and the potential for new books to be written (fewer real books sold = fewer financial advances paid to writers = fewer books written). Also, given the clear love of books as treasured artifacts, the dismissal of the Harry Potter phenomenon seems truculent, given the impetus the series gave to reading amongst both the young and adults.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372983</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Lodge
|title=Lives in Writing
|rating=4
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=David Lodge Lives in Writing. So blares the cover of my edition, and it's not far wrong. When he's not entertaining us with his [[:Category:David Lodge|writing career]] (now in its third, more erudite and to me more serious stage, after the first third of comic light touches, before he found his metier – and fame with TV adaptations– with comedies about the social and sexual lives of academe) he's teaching about and around writing. When I was younger I also read around writing – literature books, in other words – and Lodge's were among those I turned to. So this book and its contents are a welcome step back down a very familiar road.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587769</amazonuk>
}}