July 31, 2014 Angelica’s Smile by Andrea Camilleri Translated by Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I discovered the Inspector Montalbano books by Camilleri some six or seven years ago and at…
July 31, 2014 When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed by Bradley Greenburg Reviewed by Victoria Best One of the best experiences in reviewing books is when a book for which you have no particular expectations turns…
July 31, 2014 To Come Back Increased: Hild by Nicola Griffith Written by Nicola Griffith For me a good novel is one that draws me in and puts me right there, right then, with the…
July 31, 2014 Nick Rennison talks about the Victorians… By Nick Rennison What is it about us and the Victorians? Here we are in 2014, in a world of smart phones, Twitter and…
July 31, 2014 Tigerman by Nick Harkaway Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell At the time of writing, I have the pleasure of telling you that Tigerman, with its stunning cover artwork, is the best…
July 31, 2014 Travels with Epicurus by Daniel Klein Reviewed by Victoria Best Cultural theorist Giorgio Agamben has some very interesting things to say on the topic of old age – the subject…
July 31, 2014 The Day of the Dead by Maurizio de Giovanni Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Falaise On a miserable morning in 1930, a small, undernourished child is found dead at the foot of the…
July 30, 2014 Glow by Ned Beauman Reviewed by Simon Thomas When you’ve established yourself as a (Booker longlisted) quirky historical novelist – if such a title can be given to…
July 30, 2014 Eyrie by Tim Winton Reviewed by Kim Forrester If you’ve ever spoken your mind, or stood up for something you believe in when it might have been easier…
July 30, 2014 An Interview with Tim Winton Tim Winton is arguably Australia’s greatest living writer. Born in Perth in 1960, he has written novels, short story collections, non-fiction, books for children,…
July 30, 2014 Q&A with Ned Beauman Questions by Simon Thomas Simon: How did you get the idea for Glow? Ned: There were two subjects I had been wanting to write about…
July 30, 2014 The Death of the Poet by N. Quentin Woolf Reviewed by Harriet Devine How can I best describe to you this wonderful, powerful book? If I tell you that it’s about a man…
July 29, 2014 The Way Inn by Will Wiles Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell “You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.” Never has a quotation been as appropriate…
July 29, 2014 The Skeleton Cupboard by Tanya Byron Reviewed by Victoria Best When my son was still a child, he used to be transfixed by The House of Tiny Tearaways, a BBC programme…
July 29, 2014 Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Round about this time of year publishers, publicists and bookshops turn their attention to Holiday Reading or Beach Reads. Both…
July 28, 2014 The True & Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters by Michelle Lovric Reviewed by Helen Parry We Swineys were the hairiest girls in Harristown, Kildare, and the hairiest you’d find anywhere in Ireland from Priesthaggard to…
July 28, 2014 Five Fascinating Facts About… Robert Aickman Winkled out by Annabel Gaskell 1. Although we’ve come to know Aickman as an author, he was a prominent conservationist. In 1946, he was…
July 28, 2014 The New Sylva, A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century, by Gabriel Hemery and Sarah Simblet Reviewed by Hayley Anderton When Shiny New Books asked me if I’d like to review The New Sylva I thought it sounded interesting. When it arrived…
July 28, 2014 Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil by James Runcie Reviewed by Victoria Best Readers of this delightful series are probably aware that the ITV adaptation will soon be on our screens, with James…
July 25, 2014 The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith Reviewed by Harriet Devine Strike hated paddling on the periphery of a case, forced to watch as others dived for clues, leads and information….
July 24, 2014 ‘The Night Watchman’ and the Dilemma of Living in Portugal by Richard Zimler Imagine a country with the lowest salaries in Western Europe, where about 40 percent of young people are unemployed, and where 50,000 shops went…
July 24, 2014 To War With Whitaker by Hermione Ranfurly Reviewed by Claire If I were knowingly heading into an active theatre of war, I like to think I would go armed with the…
July 24, 2014 The Night Watchman by Richard Zimler Reviewed by T.V. LoCicero The Mysterious Worlds of Henrique Monroe This is the ninth novel by Richard Zimler, an American-born writer who spent his…
July 24, 2014 The Most Dangerous Book; The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham Reviewed by Max Dunbar This study of how James Joyce’s Ulysses came to be published and set in type is almost as essential as the book…
July 23, 2014 Decompression by Juli Zeh Translated by John Cullen Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite In diving, decompression is the gradual reduction of ambient pressure as a diver returns to the…
