Blue God, The [Digipak] - Martina Topley-Bird

A Soulfood Sundae with Quicksilver Sauce

Advantages: Vivid, gorgeous and quite unlike anything else you've heard
Disadvantages: Albums of this quality don't come along too often

Staton, I came across a perfect gem hiding among the contemporary pop CDs - Martina Topley Bird's debut solo recording. The name may seem slightly ludicrous ("she's a top bird!" etc), but Ms Topley Bird's voice is a gift straight from heaven. Much like Alison Goldfrapp, who is now cavorting in catsuits with her own electro-pop outfit Goldfrapp, Martina contributed backing vocals to Tricky's seminal trip-hop album of the nineties, "Maxinquaye", and it was from here that I knew her voice originally. When I was sixteen or so I spent many mellow nights lying very still in a dark room, smoking and contemplating 'Maxinquaye', because it is the kind of album that quietly demands such attention and mood, and it was always the tracks featuring MTB that stood out as being the most beautiful because they perfectly complimented her voice - light ...

dujour 01.03.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Quixotic - Martina Topley Bird

The Take, a novel by Martina Cole

Advantages: A compelling tale of a criminally inclined family
Disadvantages: Strong language and violent scenes may cause offence.

Review of ?The Take? a novel by Martina Cole I am reviewing the hardback version of the book, ISBN 978-0747269717 , 512 pages, published by Headline Book Publishing, in 2005. Jacket price £17.99. Also available used from www.amazon.co.uk . **The Novel** This novel is from the pen of Martina Cole, a British author who has made the London criminal underworld come alive for the readers of her work. The Take follows the fortunes and lives of the Jackson family from the early 1980's to the early '00s. The plot begins with the release from prison of Freddie Jackson. Freddie has done his time, made some useful contacts in prison and is back on the streets accompanied by his young cousin, Jimmy. As Freddie celebrates his freedom with booze, women and drugs, he conveniently forgets his wife Jackie waiting at home ...

brittle1906 30.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Take - Martina Cole

Two Women, hard hitting fiction from Martina Cole

Advantages: A very readable novel from a popular author
Disadvantages: Strong language and unsavoury subject matter may upset some

Martina Cole is a popular novelist, known for her gritty, gutsy, no holds barred style of writing. If readers have experienced any of her other books, they will know that Ms Cole's novels are usually set in the seedy back streets of London's underworld, an area ruled by violence, hard men and poverty. The male characters are archetypical men's men, hard drinking, hard fighting, villains. Their women are generally downtrodden and ill used, if not prostitutes. Two Women is set against this backdrop. ~~The Plot~~ The book begins in the 1980's, with convicted murderess Susan Dalston, being transported from Durham prison to Holloway prison. Dalston has lodged an appeal against her life sentence. Dalston's reputation has preceded her, a dangerous woman who battered her husband to death by hitting him over 100 times around the head ...

brittle1906 02.12.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Two Women - Martina Cole