Category: Fiction

Cull Your Darlings

In June 2016, I wrote a review of Jerome and His Women by Joan O’Hagan. The book’s publisher and Joan’s daughter, Denise O’Hagan of Black Quill Press, liked it, and we started corresponding. Recently Denise asked if I could edit the review for another publication. I had to cull it from 477 words to 300!

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All That I Am by Anna Funder

Award-winning author Anna Funder discussed her 2003 bestseller Stasiland on the Better Reading podcast in February 2019. Having visited Berlin in 1987 and 1995, her book on the East German secret police piqued my interest. It wasn’t on the shelf at my local bookshop, but I did find All That I Am.

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Tim Winton Wows Again

My first Tim Winton was Cloudstreet, bought in 1992 shortly after he’d won a second Miles Franklin Award. I’ve since added ten more Wintons to my bookcase. I enjoyed reading each book, but, for me, none had the wow impact of Cloudstreet. And then I read Tim Winton’s latest novel, The Shepherd’s Hut. Wow!

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The Man Behind The Woman in the Window

I am a sucker for a good book cover. So, while I hadn’t registered the hype about A. J. Finn’s debut novel, The Woman in the Window, it had caught my eye in bookshops. And as I am also a fan of Jimmy Stewart’s Alfred Hitchcock movies, I was intrigued by its homage to the 1954 classic, Rear Window.

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Mona Lisa Smile

A faded photo of my dad from the 1970s inspired this short piece of microfiction. He had a faraway look in his eyes and a Mona Lisa smile on his much younger face. As art lovers have done for centuries with Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa, I wondered what my dad was thinking in the photo?

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Large Print Editions

Having watched the movie versions of Their Finest and The Zookeeper’s Wife, I was pleased to track down the books in my local library. The librarian, however, quizzed me with an arched eyebrow, “They are large print editions, is that okay?” It felt like she was telling me the books were in simple-English.

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Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

Dog On It is the first book in Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie mystery series. It’s a detective novel featuring Bernie Little, “a slightly down-at-heel private investigator”, and Chet, his “partially K-9 trained” dog who failed the police-dog test when a cat appeared. Chet is also the book’s narrator.

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Nevil Shute by Richard Thorn

I commented on Facebook recently (5th September 2017) that with all the bleak news on North Korea and brinksmanship by Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, I thought I’d dust off and re-read my old second-hand bookshop copy of Nevil Shute’s On the Beach … to prepare for the worst, just in case!

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Published November 2023

By definition, brevity is the key to good microfiction. There is no time for plot and character development, so every word must count. ~ Robert Fairhead

Tall And True Microfiction by Robert Fairhead
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Published September 2022

I hope readers enjoy the short story journeys in Twelve More Furious Months and make it home in time for dinner. ~ Robert Fairhead

Twelve More Furious Months by Robert Fairhead
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Published April 2021

I look forward to the Writer's Centre's monthly Furious Fiction competitions because I've become addicted to the escapism of writing short stories! ~ Robert Fairhead

Twelve Furious Months by Robert Fairhead
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Published March 2020

This slim book is hard to put down. And the only regret we may feel after reading it is that we reached the end too quickly! ~ Denise O'Hagan

Both Sides of the Story by Robert Fairhead
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