Impact Magazine

How to get published

Having spent the Easter holiday reading, highlighting and reading some more, in the corner of a publisher’s office I have been the accidental eavesdropper to many a conversation between editors. Their criticisms would be very useful to someone who wants to see their books at the front of shop in Waterstones; so let me impart [...]

Books To Get Your Teeth Into

Over this Easter break I was fortunate enough to get a two-week placement at a London publishing house. I am only half way through but, with the number of manuscripts I have had to read, I feel like I could already give quite a few book reviews for Impact. Fortunately, whilst nitpicking over spelling and [...]

Twilight Descends

My name is Vicky and I like the Twilight series. And Harry Potter for that matter, very much.
As mundane a confession as this appears, I see it as a valid precaution: that’s right Twilight fans, you can put down your pitchforks and flaming torches now.
Perhaps I am exaggerating, but there can be no doubt as [...]

Booker Prize Review- ‘Summertime’ by J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee must feel rather blasé about being on the Booker shortlist; he has been nominated a total of 5 times, as well as being the first author to win it twice, for his novels ‘The Life and Times of Michael K’ and ‘Disgrace’. He lost out this year to Hilary Mantel, but at [...]

Booker Prize Review- ‘The Children’s Book’ by A.S. Byatt

At nearly 700 pages ‘The Children’s Book’ is a mammoth novel. Spanning a quarter of a century from 1895 to the end of World War One it charts the lives of two families, the Wellwoods and the Fludds, artistic and literary and full of rich Edwardian social ideas. It is a portrait of childhoods in [...]

Review: Roberto Bolaño’s “2666″

There’s already a myth about Roberto Bolaño. It’s anti-Pinochet agitation, strife in the desert, and morphine, amongst other things. The photos they’re now putting on the dust jackets of his novels show him as a man with a well-furrowed brow, a high hairline, and more often than not a cigarette dangling from his lips. His [...]

Book Review: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson gives an inevitably wry and witty account of the life of one of the most significant literary figures in history, taking the reader on a chronological whistle-stop tour through the life and world of Shakespeare. This was a biography so entertaining that it refused to budge from The Times top ten for 38 [...]

Book Reviews

At this time of year who feels like going out? Far more sensible to curl up in bed with a gripping read, so here are two quirky new novels that will definitely keep you entertained.
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
Black Swan Green follows a year-and-a-bit in the life of 13 year old Jason Taylor, [...]

The Book Which Changed My Life

Top five, all-time, desert island ways High Fidelity changed me, from least to most important.
1. It’s killed my finances.
I used to be a thieving little bastard when it came to music. I guess I still am a fair amount of the time, but the protagonist Rob Gordon’s expansive record collection showed me the error [...]