AMBLER, Eric (1909–98) British novelist and screenwriter Ambler worked in advertising, the film industry and the secret service before becoming a full-time novelist. The deadpan style of his thrillers lets him move easily from violence to farce, and he either sets his books in exotic places (the Levant, the Far East, tropical Africa), or makes…
Tag: Books
Douglas Adams: Biography & Books
ADAMS, Douglas (1952–2001), British novelist Adams began his career as a radio joke-writer, and also worked for the TV science fiction series Doctor Who. He made his name with a series of genial science fiction spoofs, beginning with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979). In this, Earthman Arthur Dent, informed that his planet is…
Peter Ackroyd: Biography & Books
ACKROYD, Peter (born 1949), British writer Ackroyd is a biographer as well as a novelist – his Dickens is 1,200 pages long, sumptuously detailed, and acclaimed – and his fiction benefits from a researcher’s eye for extraordinary and revealing detail about the past. Often, he blends a modern story with a historical one, and characters…
Isabel Allende: Biography & Books
ALLENDE, Isabel (born 1942), Peruvian-born Chilean novelist Allende’s first novel, The House of the Spirits (1985), was a glowing family tapestry in the magic-realist manner of >> Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, spanning five generations and thronged with larger-than-life characters and supernatural events. She followed this vein in Eva Luna, which is particularly evocative…
A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner – Summary & Review
A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner is an important addition to documented American history. The American Civil War and its aftermath is a critical period in the nation’s history and one that profoundly influenced subsequent socio-political developments. The Civil War would have its most important effect on the lives of millions of African…