July 30, 2015 London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes Reviewed by Simon There are plenty of books about World War Two. There are even plenty of diaries, and some – like Nella Last’s or Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg’s –…
July 30, 2015 The Moor by William Atkins Reviewed by Christine Harding The moors of his childhood gave William Atkins a lifelong passion for moorlands, and in this book he travels through…
July 30, 2015 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Paperback review by Harriet Marie-Laure sits on her bed with the window open and travels her hands over her father’s model of the city….
July 28, 2015 10:04 by Ben Lerner Paperback review by Susan Osborne Ben Lerner’s first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, was much talked about on publication – 10:04 is his second and it’s narrated by…
July 28, 2015 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami Translated by Philip Gabriel Reviewed by Tony Malone Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the story of thirty-six-year-old train station designer…
July 28, 2015 Alfred Hitchcock by Peter Ackroyd Reviewed by Victoria Rear Window is my all-time favourite film and I must have watched it a dozen times or more. I never seem to…
July 23, 2015 Truly Criminal: A Crime Writers’ Association Anthology of True Crime, ed. Martin Edwards Reviewed by Lyn Baines True crime is a genre that fascinates many readers. Whether it’s a famous unsolved case such as Jack the Ripper…
July 23, 2015 Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske by Julia Blackburn Reviewed by Victoria It was from a friend that Julia Blackburn first heard about John Craske, a Norfolk fisherman who became a painter and…
July 21, 2015 The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua Reviewed by Peter Hobson Punchycards! [1] If that word brings a smile of recognition to your lips then almost certainly you will not need…
July 21, 2015 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Believe the hype from America, where Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel was released in March: this is sure to be one…
July 16, 2015 The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Reviewed by Victoria Everyone must have a perfect book, and The Enchanted April is mine. Although it was first published way back in 1922, it remains…
July 16, 2015 On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks Reviewed by Simon Oliver Sacks’ works are pretty much the only non-fiction books I read that aren’t about literature; for over thirty years he…
July 16, 2015 Instrumental by James Rhodes Reviewed by Annabel It’s hard to know where to start in writing about this memoir. I could be glib and say it’s about the…
July 14, 2015 The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson Reviewed by Rebecca Hussey Maggie Nelson has had what one might call a cult following ever since the 2009 publication of her genre-bending essayistic…
July 14, 2015 Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales Reviewed by Annabel There are large numbers of popular science books written about particle physics, space and the periodic table, ditto for medicine and…
July 14, 2015 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén Caitlin Doughty was a twenty-three-year-old with a degree in medieval history when she decided to become a mortician. The decision…
July 14, 2015 One Life: My Mother’s Story by Kate Grenville Reviewed by Victoria Sorting through her mother’s things after her death in 2002, Kate Grenville came across an exercise book with her mother’s handwriting…
July 14, 2015 The Wrong Girl by Laura Wilson Reviewed by Harriet I’ve been a fan of Laura Wilson since I discovered her first DI Ted Stratton novel, Stratton’s War, published in 2008. Four more in…
July 9, 2015 A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson Reviewed by Harriet He had made a vow, a private promise to the world in the long dark watches of the night, that if…
July 9, 2015 Life Among the Savages & Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson Reviewed by Simon I already knew that I loved Shirley Jackson – I did from the time I was about a chapter into We Have…
July 9, 2015 Pleasantville by Attica Locke Reviewed by Gill Davies Pleasantville is the third novel by Attica Locke. I remember that the reviews for her first novel, Black Water Rising, were very good…
July 9, 2015 Writing about secrets, the false self and insecure identities in my novel, Sugar and Snails, by Anne Goodwin Article by Anne Goodwin We all have secrets, things we’ve done or aspects of ourselves that we can reveal only to our nearest and…
July 9, 2015 Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards Reviewed by Harriet Vintage crime fiction is enjoying a tremendous renaissance at the moment, and the British Library Crime Classics series certainly has a…
July 9, 2015 Martin Edwards Q&A Questions by Harriet Harriet: Martin, although you have been a solicitor all your working life, it’s probably true to say that until recently you have…
July 9, 2015 Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin Reviewed by Victoria Diana Dodsworth is an enigma to the reader, a complicated, prickly person in her 40s who seems imperfectly stitched together over…
