Helpful votes received on reviews:
87% (4,938 of 5,651)
Location: London United Kingdom
In My Own Words:
I am a novelist (my best-known being A Vicious Circle, a satire about the literary world)with a sixth Hearts & Minds out now in May 2009. It's a big, modern detective story set in London, about immigrants legal and illegal, and how five people's lives are affected by the murder of an au pair. You can look up more about these on my website, www.amandacraig.com. I began writing because I'm passiona… Read moreI am a novelist (my best-known being A Vicious Circle, a satire about the literary world)with a sixth Hearts & Minds out now in May 2009. It's a big, modern detective story set in London, about immigrants legal and illegal, and how five people's lives are affected by the murder of an au pair. You can look up more about these on my website, www.amandacraig.com. I began writing because I'm passionate about reading - I always have a couple of books on the go, and it seems a waste not to share the ones I've particularly enjoyed. I was one of the first critics to discover JK Rowling and Philip Pullman, and am keen to share other good children's authors with readers. You can also check out my Listmanias, which include books for dragon-lovers, best audio tapes for long journeys and picture books for getting small children to sleep! As a novelist myself I loathe the way so many readers and book buyers get short-changed by the literary world (something A Vicious Circle addresses).
Hearts & Minds is a kind of sequel to A Vicious Circle, and is another attempt to write a Dickensian novel for modern London. It's a detective story and a thriller, involving five immigrants with interlinked lives - some illegal and poor, others second generation and professional middle class people. I passionately believe good novels should have plots, and believeable characters, not just style. One of the things I love about amazon is that it gives readers a chance to say what they think and feel -often v. different from professional critics - irrespective of hype. So if you enjoy my reviews (or indeed my novels) then please, add your own. I review children's books for The Times, and adult fiction for The Independent on Sunday and The New Statesman, among others, but I only review here what I've really liked or found interesting (hence the frequent 4/5 stars - it's not worth commenting on the dross).
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Winter Garden is the sequel to Thynne's Black Roses, set in 1930s Berlin. The Half German (and secretly half Jewish) actress Clara is still working undercover for British intelligence, and becomes embroiled in a murder committed at a Nazi Bride School, where women are trained to be perfect wives for senior Nazis. Intelligent, gutsy, charming and attractive, Clara has become friendly with Magda Goebbels, and spies on senior Nazis and their sympathisers including the two Fascist symapthisers in the Moseley family, Unity and Diana, and the former King of England and Mrs Simpson. The writing is crisp, clear and vivid, with the increasingly sinister charm of Berlin's architecture… Read more
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
This is such a brilliant idea - a young woman's autobiography via heroines of literary and popular fiction - that I almost hoped it would be bad. It isn't. It's beautifully written, very funny and full of the kind of insight you only get from honesty and intelligence. Ellis's account of growing up in England as part of an Iraqi-Jewish family add another dimension to a book thousands of women readers will love, as she learns from obvious heroines like Elizabeth Bennett to less obvious ones like The Dolls (as in Valley of). I'd like to give this to all my women friends - and my daughter.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
The sequel to The Sleeping Army, The Lost Gods is even better than its predecessor. Freya is back home in a London just like ours - except that the prevailing religion is Wodenism, which changes all kinds of things from school to religious worship. She wants to be an ordinary schoolgirl, but then Woden, Thor and Freyja turn up on her doorstep. The Frost Giants have awakened and are already creating havoc with the weather here on Midgard. They behave as oafishly as ever, expecting everyone to tremble and obey, and ruining Freya's parents# home...only nobody worships them any more. How can they regain their powers? Why, by winning a version of The X Factor! It should be a simple matter for… Read more
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