April 30, 2014 On Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle I have always been fascinated in the forgotten lives of women in history and Sisters of Treason (the second in my Tudor trilogy) exposes the lives…
April 30, 2014 The Unknown Bridesmaid by Margaret Forster Reviewed by Victoria Best Margaret Forster is one of those authors who have been steadily producing first class fiction for decades without ever getting…
April 30, 2014 Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst by Vita Sackville-West & Sarah Raven Reviewed by Rachel Fenn Sissinghurst is the sort of place that you can’t help but fall in love with at first sight, even if…
April 30, 2014 The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell I knew that Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, had other literary strings to her bow, for a few years ago she…
April 29, 2014 On Translating Boel Westin’s Biography of Tove Jansson – by translator Silvester Mazzarella I am ashamed to admit that I lived in Helsinki (in Swedish Helsingfors), for more than twenty years during Tove Jansson’s lifetime without ever…
April 29, 2014 The Bookshop That Floated Away by Sarah Henshaw In early 2011 I realised the bookshop I’d been running for the last two years would probably have to close. It operated from a…
April 29, 2014 Black Lake by Johanna Lane Reviewed by Danielle Simpson Johanna Lane’s debut novel, Black Lake, is the sort of story that creeps up on you. You don’t realize just how…
April 29, 2014 Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words by Boel Westin Translated by Silvester Mazzarella Reviewed by Simon Thomas Tove Jansson is one of my very favourite authors, and I often recommend her to friends…
April 29, 2014 The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick Reviewed by Harriet Devine Mom liked to celebrate the little things. Like finding a forgotten wrinkled dollar in a lint-ridden coat pocket, or when…
April 28, 2014 The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz Reviewed by Victoria Best Best book of the year so far is Stephen Grosz’s compilation of case stories from his thirty years as a…
April 28, 2014 The Dead Beat by Doug Johnstone Reviewed by Harriet Devine At the beginning of the The Dead Beat, Martha Fluke is visiting her father’s grave in an Edinburgh cemetery. There was…
April 25, 2014 Celia Fremlin – A Life of Crime By Victoria Best Celia Fremlin published her first crime fiction, The Hours Before Dawn, in 1959, when she was 44 years old, and it was an…
April 25, 2014 Tristano: A Novel by Nanni Balestrini Translated by Mike Harakis Reviewed by Helen Parry The philosophy that a text is created by the reader as well as the writer is…
April 25, 2014 The Telling Error by Sophie Hannah Reviewed by Harriet Devine Well, Sophie Hannah has done it again. Did anyone ever have such a fiendishly fertile and convoluted imagination? This is…
April 25, 2014 Longbourn by Jo Baker Reviewed by Harriet Devine Jo Baker has had the brilliant idea of writing, not a sequel, but an account of what goes on below…
April 24, 2014 Five Fascinating Facts about Rumer Godden Compiled by Victoria Best As an accompaniment to Harriet’s review of Rumer Godden novels An Episode of Sparrows and The Dark Horse, here are five things you might…
April 24, 2014 An Episode of Sparrows and The Dark Horse by Rumer Godden Reviewed by Harriet Devine Rumer Godden is a remarkable writer, and far less well known today than she deserves to be. So, Virago’s decision…
April 24, 2014 Discovering Mary Hocking In The Back Of Another Book Written by Ali Hope There is probably no greater joy for a book lover than to discover a new author. I found Mary Hocking…
April 24, 2014 The ‘Fairley Family Trilogy’ by Mary Hocking Reviewed by Ali Hope The Fairley family trilogy by Mary Hocking has remained among her most popular novels. They were among a small number…
April 24, 2014 An Interview with Jill Dawson By Victoria Best Jill Dawson’s wonderful new novel, The Tell-Tale Heart, recounts the story of Patrick, a womanising lecturer who has recently received a heart transplant….
April 24, 2014 The Tell-Tale Heart by Jill Dawson Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Jill Dawson’s eighth novel is certainly a tale with heart. At the centre of it is Professor and professional reprobate…
April 24, 2014 The Smoke is Rising by Mahesh Rao Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne Mahesh Rao’s debut novel, The Smoke is Rising, chronicles the daily lives of Susheela, Mala and Uma in Mysore, India; three…
April 24, 2014 On Writing by A.L. Kennedy Reviewed by Simon Thomas When I first heard that A.L. Kennedy had written a book called On Writing – now out in paperback – I was…
April 24, 2014 The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Commercial women’s fiction, you know – what we used to call ‘Chick-lit’, some still do, is alive and well, and…
April 24, 2014 Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood Written by Victoria Best Gertrude Stein said rather pithily of Hemingway, ‘Anyone who marries three girls from St Louis hasn’t learned much.’ In Naomi Wood’s…
