Herbaceous by Paul Evans
Reviewed by Barb Scharf HERBACEOUS adj resembling or having the nature of herbs (any non-woody seed-bearing plant which dies down to the ground after flowering but whose roots etc. survive);…
Reviewed by Barb Scharf HERBACEOUS adj resembling or having the nature of herbs (any non-woody seed-bearing plant which dies down to the ground after flowering but whose roots etc. survive);…
Written by Liam Roberts After an engrossing and thrilling first chapter, readers may expect a zipping crime novel full of action and intrigue, which The Spring of Kasper Meier does have in…
Tell us about your apprenticeship in art – what experiences have made you the writer you are today? My first real job after college was as a reporter in a…
Reviewed by Frances Ambler Mention art and money together and the chances are it’ll conjure up an image of some Saatchi-esque super dealer or the likes of Damien Hirst, artists…
Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn Reviewed by Annabel In my experience, there aren’t many novels for children and young adults around in English translation, although I was pleased…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine I’m not one of those people who rush out and buy all the Booker longlisted books on principle, or even the shortlisted ones, or even the…
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton My best friend and I met through books; she was running a discount bookshop that I used to shop in, after a while she gave me…
Reviewed by Harriet Let me say at once that I absolutely loved this book. I’ve read all the previous seven of Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler series with pleasure, though I…
By Diana Cheng The harvest of films releasing in the latter part of the year for me is the compensation for fallen leaves and chilly weather. Indeed, movies coming out…
The heroine of the Resistance may have been rising ninety, but she was still wearing racy red shoes. “Not so many years,” she said, “but a time that marked us…
Reviewed by Simon It is difficult to write a review of a Marilynne Robinson novel that can even begin to do her writing justice. Reading one of her books makes…
Reviewed by Adèle Geras The blurb on the back of this novel says it’s a sequel to Deborah Lawrenson’s well-received book, The Lantern. I haven’t read this, I’m afraid, so I…
By Victoria Best Monique Roffey has been on a creative roll for the best part of a decade and has seen her work rise to prominence and gain critical acclaim;…
Reviewed by Danielle. The beautiful and elegant city of Vienna serves as the backdrop to Margaret Leroy’s engaging historical novel The English Girl. While the city is known for its elegance…
Translated by George Szirtes Reviewed by Victoria Best I often shy away from books in translation, afraid they will sound clunky and odd. But this 1963 novel by renowned Hungarian…
Questions by Victoria 1. Can you recall the first time you knew you wanted to be a writer? In second grade, we made our own blank-paged, cloth bound books. I…
Reviewed by Victoria Best How much are we responsible for the things that happen to the people we love? This is one of the underpinning themes of Mira Jacob’s sprawling,…
Reviewed by Jean Morris Had I not so much enjoyed Monique Roffey’s previous novels, each one more than the last, I’m not sure I’d have wanted to read House of Ashes,…
By Victoria Best It is 1937 and disgraced Cambridge student, Esmond Lowndes – caught in bed with another boy by the Master of Emmanuel College, no less – is being…
By the Shiny New Books Editors Never mind the old saw, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, how important IS cover design, bearing in mind the recent issues over…
Reviewed by Denise Kong If, as I do, you use Yahoo Mail, it’s impossible to log in without being enticed into clicking on some lurid headline about an outrageous wrong…
Selected by Victoria Best You’d think everything there is to say about Scotland has been said in the media over the past couple of months. But there’s been a suspicious…
Interview by Victoria Best First of all, I have to say that Annabel, my co-editor, and I are both enormous fans of your books. [Laurie: THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!] We’ve both been…
Reviewed by Victoria Best Laurie Graham is one of those authors who never seem to get the attention and acknowledgement they deserve. Her novels are engrossing and clever and so,…