I have a friend who’s a famous writer and he never reads any reviews of his work. Back in the day, I was briefly commissioned by the Times Higher Educational Supplement to review books and I was thrilled because (a) it paid, and I needed more expensive shoes, and (b) I hoped there might be some prestige attached.
Less venally, I found the exercise — reading carefully and writing thoughtfully — enjoyable. I never heard from the people whose work I reviewed, so maybe they too refused to read reviews, fearing the worst. My own books are hardly reviewed so I don’t know how maddening reviews might be.
Then the THES work stopped and I never found out why. In my venture into journalism and photography (one of my shorter careers) my paranoia was slightly curbed when I realised that my work came and went not so much on a judgement of its value, but because the commissioner was no longer in post. Or maybe it was because I was crap.
Now, about 30 years later, I’m back in the review writing game and I’m thrilled because I need the money to pay my analyst to help me address my manic defences. And because I still love reading carefully. I like thinking about how to phrase any criticism I might have in a way that helps, rather than undermines, the author.
A big bonus is getting helpful comments from the commissioner and the copy editor. Even better, I have some say in what I review, so I always have great stuff to read.
Here’s a list from my stuff on the excellent Writers Mosaic website. As you’ll see, if you can spare the time, one of these pieces, about Malcolm X, is more autobiographical.
Empire Without End by Dr Imaobong Umoforen (An excellent long history of the exploitative relationship between the Caribbean and Britain.) 2025
Malcolm X and James Baldwin Changed Me (How meeting Dave as a teenager, and reading Baldwin and Alex Haley shaped my life.) Audio version available. 2025
We Were There by Lanre Bakare (The first book to show how ALL of the UK has been transformed for the better by its post-war Caribbean migrants.) 2025
Another Man in the Street by Caryl Phillips (Phillips’ path-breaking new novel about how migration to London unsettles the whites, as well as the black protagonist of this short, sharp novel.) 2025
CLR James - A Life Beyond Boundaries by John L Williams (The most comprehensive account yet of this astonishing Trinidadian Marxist thinker and activist. It includes my anecdote about meeting the great man himself.) 2024