Sunday, May 8th, 2011
It can be odd to read a work like this one, that defines a set of literary conventions which are now so commonplace as to be completely unremarkable. It’s necessary to work quite hard to get yourself in a mindset where you can properly appreciate its originality.
Monday, February 25th, 2008
A great way to start 2008: having this short story collection read out loud in front of the fire. We’re busy reading our way through the entire Modesty Blaise pantheon (OK, the novels plus those strips that are more accessibly reprinted) and Pieces of Modesty is a first. It’s a short story collection technically bridging the period between the major adventures of The Impossible Virgin and The Silver Mistress but the stories were, in many cases, written earlier and then not published. Many of them were, apparently, even illustrated. And, as the Wikipedia article on this collection points out, some elements are re-used in the newspaper strips.
Monday, February 16th, 2004
I’m glad I read this, but I came away feeling that Alexei Sayle needs nothing so much as a good editor.