Sacred Hunger

Another bloated Booker prize winner. Shared the prize with the infinitely more sophisticated and innovative The English Patient. Another baffling decision on the part of the judges. The English Patient is a torchbearer of how nimble and ironically self-regarding historical fiction will become in the......more

In 1992 the Man Booker prize was shared for the first time. Now everybody remembers “The English Patient” but fewer remember the book that tied with it, which is a shame because it is a wonderful book. Sacred Hunger opens with Erasmus Kemp’s father showing him the construction of his ship, the LIVERP......more

Here's another 5 star novel I never reviewed. Barry Unsworth was an English guy, son of a miner (something he has in common with DH Lawrence, and more importantly, with me). He knocked out all kinds of interesting novels and this is a real pearl, all about slavery, so of course it's a historical hor......more

A fascinating and earnest piece of historical fiction. It doesn't possess the layered ironies of some of Unsworth's other work, and I did miss that, but overall, it's very well done.......more

This review was written in the late nineties (for my eyes only), and it was buried in amongst my things until recently when I uncovered the journal in which it was written. I have transcribed it verbatim from all those years ago (although square brackets may indicate some additional information for......more