Book Review: Streets of Sin - A Dark Biography of Notting Hill by Fiona Rule

Last Updated: 30 May 2021

AD* | A short walk away from London’s West End lies Notting Hill - one of the capital’s most exclusive residential districts and a celebrity hotspot. But this outwardly genteel enclave has its shocking secrets.

Streets of Sin delves into Notting Hill’s distinctly murky past and relates the deplorable scandals that blighted the area from its development until the late 20th century. Bestselling London historian Fiona Rule sheds new light on notorious events that took place amid the leafy streets, including the horrifying murders at Rillington Place, the nefarious career of slum landlord Peter Rachman, the Profumo affair, and Britain’s first race riots, and reveals what life was life in Notting Hill during its dark years when murder, extortion, and disorder were everyday occurrences.

Book Review: Solarversia by Toby Downton

Last Updated: 26 March 2024

AD* | Solarversia is the story of an epic year-long game played by 100 million people inside a virtual world modelled on the real world Solar System. Given three lives, three vehicles, and told to master The Science of Solarversia to stand a chance of winning, players compete for the £10m grand prize, and the chance to help design the next game, starting in 2024.

Nova Negrahnu and her friends Burner and Sushi cannot wait to start playing. But when an international terrorist organisation sets its sights on the game and its creator, Nova finds her life turned upside down, as the line between simulation and reality blurs. Can she navigate between playing the game, coping with all the issues an eighteen-year-old girl faces and avoid the very real and present danger mounting outside Solaversia?

Book Review: The Gift of Charms by Julia Suzuki

Last Updated: 30 May 2021

AD* | In a secret land, far away from the habitation of man, dwell the world's remaining dragons -- hoping the dragsaur beasts have vanished forever. Here they try to live their daily lives, but all is not well and their talents are fading.

Things change, however, when, from a strange egg, Yoshiko is born - a dragon with a unique destiny.

Great adventure lies ahead as many challenges must be overcome, leading to a dangerous mission to the human world in an attempt to return to the clans their missing magic!

Can Yoshiko make it in time?

5 Books I Want to Read in 2016

Everyone has books they'd like to read. Most people just pick up a book that takes their fancy when they've finished their current book, but I'm rather more organised than that.

That's because, owning over 800 books (that's excluding the ones I've previously read and kept), I kind of have to be organised. So to retain some semblance of order among my many books, I made a master list of all the books I own and haven't read yet.