Frank Schätzing

Advantages: Good initial 'up to the minute' plot
Disadvantages: Unnecessary length, silly plot

...30 sets of worryingly interested eyes swivelled from jotters to the front of the class as the Jiffy-Bag inadvertently ripped in my hands, the contents falling with an entertainingly noisy clatter onto my desk. "What's that 'Beast', Sir?" The 'beast' in question was indeed gargantuan, Frank Schätzing's 'The Swarm'. As somebody who never wins anything I was astonished, as the book was one of 10 winning prizes selected by random from a competition in The Herald that I had entered and then promptly forgotten about. But was the book any good? When I picked up the book - all 881 pages of it - I had in mind the movie of the same name that came out in 1978, in which vast clouds of African killer bees delivered the ultimate answer to that age old question: Death where is thy sting? However Schätzing's tome is in fact an up... Read review

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Advantages: Entertaining readable book, experiences honestly told, no holds barred life story
Disadvantages: Frank humour might offend some

...IN A SENTENCE WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? Frank Skinner's first autobiography - an entertaining, deeply candid laddish trawl through the ups and downs of his life and career from his working class background in the West Midlands to his notoriety as a popular entertainer. WHAT MADE ME BUY IT? It was through The Frank Skinner Show in the nineties that I first became aware of Frank Skinner (born Chris Collins). This was probably the first chat show I had seen that had an ordinary bloke chatting to stars as if they were ordinary themselves. Which of course they are (but try telling some of them that!) The only person who had got anywhere close to his down-to-earth informal interviewing style was Chris Evans on TFI Friday. Although I thought he was missing something Frank had. The talent for natural acerbic wit mainly, I think. Since... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Its a good story
Disadvantages: It doesnt feel quite right

...I'm sure I had, as many people had in school read Anne Franks diary. Now 12 years later my daughter wants to read it and do you think I could find it anywhere? What is considered to be a very important piece of social history wasn't in Waterstones or Blackwells. In the end we had to order it from WH Smiths who didn't stock it either!! Anyway, we finally got it 2 weeks later and found it was the latest definitive version which also has previously unpublished material. Which makes life difficult particularly if you have read the earlier editions. You see Anne originally started a diary in 1942 then in 1944 a radio announcement asked people to keep letters and diaries as eye witness accounts, so she started to rewrite and edit her diary, improved text and out in things from memory as well as keeping the original. Later Otto Frank her... Read review

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