charles barrow's writing

I've talked about 'Victober 'on here before, though to my surprise I find it was back in 2022. It's a BookTube event that takes place during the month of October, when readers are encouraged to read a book published by a UK author in the Victorian era - during the reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901. The last time I took part in this challenge, or at least the last time I wrote about it on my blog was in October 2022. That year I read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This year I will be choosing one of the books from the stack pictured below. Sorry the photo is a little murky and the book titles a little hard to read, but the books pictured (from bottom to top) are: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, and The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. Last time I took part in this challenge I didn't follow the letter of the rules and I may not ...

Further to my p.s. post below, in which I discuss extra author content at the back of novels. I just finished reading The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. It's a Sherlock Holmes novel. Brave writer, Horowitz, to step into Conan Doyle's big shoes and take on the iconic and much loved detective. There seems to be a vogue for bringing dead authors' most famous characters back to life, hasn't Sophie Hannah just done it with Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot? Fans of Sherlock (legion and rabid) needn't have worried, Horowitz has written a cracking tale from start to finish and after it has finished he treats us to some detailed notes on how he went about approaching his task, in ten rules he set himself at the outset. Interesting stuff. And while I'm back on this topic... I heard a brilliant Aaron Sorkin interview on Radio 4's Front Row recently. Sorkin is a master of his craft, The West Wing and The Social Network amongst many others, and it was fascina...