criticism – toby wallis

Under the Redacted

I have spent the last week trying to ignore the fact that I have had a cold. This is how I deal with them. I just carry on regardless, obstinately pretending that I feel absolutely fine. Like my face isn’t leaking from about half of its orifices. I’m not fooling anyone. I don’t get illContinue reading “Under the Redacted”

Penguin’s Great Ideas and the Eradication of the Foreword

I’m usually late to the party when it comes to exciting new things. By the time I discover the author, or hear the band, or whatever, there will already be a large body of work behind them and a fanatical group of followers will have already formed. I’m used to it now, being one stepContinue reading “Penguin’s Great Ideas and the Eradication of the Foreword”

The Secret Footballer by The Secret Footballer

I had this great idea, about fifteen years ago, that when I finally wrote a novel I would do so anonymously. Not that I had any great need of anonymity, I didn’t have anything to hide or anything to protect. It just seemed like a cool device. Something to break the fourth wall and haveContinue reading “The Secret Footballer by The Secret Footballer”

Harold Fry and the 2012 Booker

As with every year when the Booker prize long-list and the subsequent shortlist are announced I take a look, ostensibly for the purpose of finding new things to read but always in the hope of seeing something on there that I have already read. The usual turn of events is that the list features some books that IContinue reading “Harold Fry and the 2012 Booker”

A Break From Fiction

I finished reading the third volume of 1Q84. I tried to drag it out for as long as I could but it had to happen eventually. There is a lovely quote (that I am probably going to mis-remember and I can’t even look up because I don’t remember who said it. I only just aboutContinue reading “A Break From Fiction”