We start Part Two in one of the ritziest parts of London – Holland Park – where both Ursula and her charismatic aunt Izzie from Kate Atkinson’s ‘Life After Life’ are meant to live (alongside Michael Powell and Michael Winner it seems). We scurry off quickly to Soho in search of pubs and clubs featuredContinue reading “Life After Life Part Two”
Author Archives: timwright1964
Life After Life Part One
We’re off in search of Fox Corner, the family home of the Todds, as featured heavily in Kate Atkinson’s time-twisting bestseller ‘Life After Life’. Is Fox Corner a real place or just made up? Or could it be a bit of both? If you want to hear our episodes without ads, as soon as they’reContinue reading “Life After Life Part One”
The Night Watch Part Two
In this episode we follow the extraordinary walk taken by two of the book’s protagonists, Julia and Helen, as they walk across the City of London during an air raid. It’s a landscape of doomed churches and hidden alleyways, now loomed over by gargantuan office blocks. We doff our caps to the intelligence and diligenceContinue reading “The Night Watch Part Two”
The Night Watch Part Two
We’re back, with our second novel set in the Second World War. This time, it’s The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, a passionate and intricate story of doomed love affairs among the falling bombs of the Blitz and the Baby Blitz. In part one we visit Lavender Hill, Wormwood Scrubs and the tall Georgian manorContinue reading “The Night Watch Part Two”
Crooked Heart Part Two
We’ve come down the Thameslink trainline from St Albans, got off at Kentish Town and made our way to Hampstead Heath. We’re attempting to track down all the key places mentioned in Lissa Evans’s popular WW2 novel. But she is proving to be tricky. Yes, the Vale of Health is a real place and, thanksContinue reading “Crooked Heart Part Two”
Crooked Heart Part One
Pack up your suitcase, write your name on a label and tie it to your coat – we’re all being evacuated to St Albans to take Lissa Evans’s popular WW2 novel for a walk. We’re looking for the house where the main characters live, said to be near a local scrapyard. Quite why we end upContinue reading “Crooked Heart Part One”
Get Carter Part Two
In Part Two of our Get Carter adventure, we discover another Scunthorpe – green, pleasant, well-heeled – as try and locate Kinnear’s Casino and the quarry where Jack’s brother died. Then we head 10 miles north to the abandoned brickyards of the Humber estuary, where Jack finally runs his quarry to ground. In the shadowContinue reading “Get Carter Part Two”
Get Carter Part One
We’re taking a book out into the wild which you might know better by its film version: Get Carter, by Ted Lewis. Originally published as Jack’s Return Home, this tight, dirty, hard and mean book is as sharp as a switchblade and as cold as the dirty winter streets of Lincolnshire. We travel to Scunthorpe,Continue reading “Get Carter Part One”
A Kestrel for a Knave Part Two
In Part Two of our attempt to use ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’ as our guide through the real world, we track down the school where a lot of the book’s action takes place. We talk warmly about Brian Glover, the man who steals the famous football scene in the movie ‘Kes’. We also findContinue reading “A Kestrel for a Knave Part Two”
A Kestrel for a Knave Part One
Forget the film ‘Kes’ (hard to do we know). Let’s take the book that inspired the movie out for a walk. We’re off to Hoyland Common, near Barnsley in Yorkshire, in search of locations from the novel ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’. In Part One, we enquire about books on falconry at Barnsley Library. WeContinue reading “A Kestrel for a Knave Part One”
The Curiously Specific Book Club 