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Crisp as a new banknote and structured with the precision of an architectural drawing. This book is impressive. The running theme is accumulation of great wealth through skilled manipulation of stocks and shares, and how that wealth can be used either philanthropically or manipulatively.  Constructed in four parts, the reader is left to realise for themselves just how they fit together.  There will be several moments during reading when something suddenly clicks, and light blazes back down the story illuminating the path behind. Hernan Diaz is concise with his writing but, my goodness, two deftly chosen words can conjure a whole mood or a facial expression in an instant.  His first novel, Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and he has more awards to put on his wall than might be strictly considered polite.   Highly recommended, but be warned, you may spoil the next half dozen books you read afterwards. This is a tough act to follow.

  Tracy Chevalier is a very good author with some brilliant books such as Girl with a Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures behind her, and I am wondering if this one sold so many copies because people were expecting more of the same. I suspect I am bang smack in the centre of the target audience for this one.  Lady of a certain age who is not adverse to a bit of nostalgia, does a little tapestry and has a great fondness for Winchester Cathedral, but no, I wasn't struck by it at all.  If I had misplaced it half way through I don't think I would have spent too much time searching for it. The lead characters just don't seem as convincing as the people in her other novels, and I felt as though Tracy Chevalier put too much emphasis on including facts from her research books, to the point that even the first page feels as though some of the text was cut from the cathedral guide book. We follow the (mostly) uneventful life of Violet Speedwell who, like so many other women in t...

One Friday evening, way back in the early 1970s, my father and I were making our weekly visit to the town library when I came across a book documenting the illustrations painted by Norman Rockwell.  It was a big colourful coffee-table book, and I was usually encouraged to leave those alone, but this time Dad was just as keen as I was to borrow it because 'Norman Rockwell is the greatest illustrator in the world.'   He was not wrong and I have remained a loyal fan of Mr Rockwell ever since. I always meant to track down a copy of the book to have for myself, and while I was looking for it online recently, I came across this great lump of a biography that I didn't even know existed.  As Christmas was just around the corner, one of my dear sons offered to buy it for me as a present and I can honestly say I have loved every page of it.  In fact I loved it so much that I re-organised all our bookshelves so that my art section is now at nose level in the dining room. N...