Comments on Blogging Bookworms: Skallagrigg - William Horwood

where can I get a video or dvd?

2007-08-18T02:36:00.000+01:00

where can I get a video or dvd?

Thank you for a wonderful review Goldfish. You put...

2005-11-20T16:44:00.000Z

Thank you for a wonderful review Goldfish. You put it much better than I ever could.

Like you I had ceratin reservations when Lady B said that it would make me cry. Although I do cry at the happy bits in films, especially when the boy gets the girl, I have never cried when reading a book. However the scene where Esther makes Richard a birthday card had me in floods.

I'm afraid I fell head over heels in love with Esther too. This took me by surprise too. I have never felt so connected with a character in a book before. She is a difficult, harrassible but above all a viberant young woman and just one utterence of "Nah" or "Yeh" had me weak at the knees.

I can't wait to reread this amazing book.

If the Goldfish can bear to read an entire novel o...

2005-11-20T13:47:00.000Z

If the Goldfish can bear to read an entire novel on screen, there's a link to the complete text of Precious Bane here.

I am very grateful to yourself and Marmite for the...

2005-11-19T12:25:00.000Z

I am very grateful to yourself and Marmite for the recommendation, Lady Bracknell. :-)

Of course now I have to track down a copy of Precios Bane if that's higher than Skallagrigg in your esteem.

Very nicely done, Goldfish, if I may say so. The p...

2005-11-18T19:02:00.000Z

Very nicely done, Goldfish, if I may say so. The problem with reviewing Skallagrigg is always going to be that you cannot even hint at the solution to its central puzzle without completely ruining someobody else's first read of it.

I have read many on-line reviews of the book, and they have tended to be much more succinct than yours precisely because of this problem.

The first time I read Skallagrigg, I read it in a day. Given the number of pages, the density of the writing, and they size of the font, I really have no idea how I accomplished this feat: I only remember that I simply could not put it down.

I carried on reading despite the fact that, some of the time, I could barely see for the tears streaming down my face.

I have lost count of the number of times I have re-read it, and it still makes me cry.

You talk about William Horwood's expertise in his subject matter: you may not be aware that he has a daughter who has CP.

His writing style is certainly idiosyncratic, and can take some "tuning in" to. I had always vaguely assumed that he had adopted the style specifically for this book (although I can't imagine why I would have thought that), but I read his autobiography last year, which disproved that theory immediately.

Admittedly, it's not to everyone's taste. I had it thrown back in my face by one friend, who said, "Why did you give me this sad book to read?" Unfortunately, she didn't finish it, so she never reached the transcendentally joyous passages which raise the goose bumps on my arms.

Skallagrigg almost - but not quite - topples Precious Bane from first place in my list of favourite books of all time.