The review in The Times of the new book by by Jeanette Winterson, Night Side of the River: Ghost Stories, starts off very positive but it has a sting in its tail.

It’s written in an informal, conversational style and lacks the heightened prose of the books on which Winterson made her reputation, (which were) filled with phrases that didn’t just describe the thing — they were the thing itself. The sound of the sentences doesn’t seem important to her any more.

Ouch!

Heightened prose or not, the book has at least one good line : “Grieving means living with someone who is no longer there.”