MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Sci fi and fantasy
Reviews of The Cottingley Cuckoo by AJ Elwood, Artifact Space by Miles Cameron and The Caduca by Elaine Graham-Leigh
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
ROSE, mourning her mother, uncertain about her marriage and resentful that her plans to escape small-town life have been frustrated by events, is working at a retirement home in The Cottingley Cuckoo by AJ Elwood (Titan, £8.99).
One of its residents is different to the others. Mrs Favell is rather grand, has all her wits about her and takes a not very kindly interest in Rose.
She shows her a letter supposedly written in 1921 to Arthur Conan Doyle by a man in Cottingley whose granddaughter has had an extraordinary and well-evidenced encounter with fairies. Rose is fascinated by the tale, though repelled by the old woman.
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