Nothing Short of Dying by Erik Storey
Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies Erik Storey’s début novel, which bids to inaugurate a series, comes garlanded with approving quotes from established authors Lee Child and Jeffrey Deaver and has been…
Of Food and Film at TIFF16
By Diana Cheng I just came back home from the Toronto International Film Festival. Of the eight features I had watched, there are two that stirred up some ripples in…
The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by Cameron McCabe
Reviewed by Harriet I saw the ships in the water and the lights of the stars in the water and the reflections under the bridges. The pubs were about to…
Stranger than we can Imagine by John Higgs
Review by Peter Hobson Subtitled “Making Sense of the Twentieth Century”, Higgs’ book takes fifteen of what he (and I think many people) consider to be seminal concepts, paradigm shifts…
Snow by Marcus Sedgwick
Reviewed by Annabel Snow is the latest addition to small indie publisher Little Toller’s series of ‘monographs’. These smart little hardbacks are dedicated to writing ‘attuned to the natural world,’…
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Paperback review by Annabel If you’ve not yet encountered Mick Herron, you are in for a treat with Slow Horses. Recently reprinted, it’s the first in a series of British…
Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Translated by David Carter Reviewed by Simon If the name Antoine de Saint-Exupéry means anything to you, it probably only means one thing: The Little Prince. It was this contrast…
Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes
Reviewed by Simon They’ve done it again! Slightly Foxed have brought out yet another fascinating, entertaining, and well-written memoir – and another one that I would never have heard of…
The Empathy Problem by Gavin Extence
Review by Annabel In three novels now, Gavin Extence has proven that he can maintain a light-hearted narrative that can ultimately uplift, no matter how bad life gets. That’s not…
Reading for Food and Drink
Written by Hayley Anderton Wine is a wonderful thing, a living, breathing, liquid that ages, changes, develops in bottle and glass. It has the capacity to be hugely disappointing (if…
The Theoretical Foot by M. F. K. Fisher
Reviewed by Victoria Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher is far better known in the States than in the UK, and better known as a food writer than a novelist. She is…
The Naïve and Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk
Translated by Nazim Dikbas Reviewed by Rob Spence Orhan Pamuk, Nobel laureate, is the kind of public intellectual that we need to cherish, especially in these dark days for his…
Do Not Say we Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Reviewed by Karen Heenan-Davies June 1989. After months of student-led demonstrations in Beijing the Government sends in the troops. Tanks roll down the streets of the capital. Several hundred demonstrators…
A Novel Calling: Danielle Simpson’s Books That Were Written Just For Me
“A handful of books that have been really important in your life.” So, that was the brief. For someone who loves reading, loves books and stories . . . how…
A Shetlander’s Fair Isle Graph Book In Colour
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is the second book from the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers. The first one was A Legacy of Shetland Lace which is a tremendous…
Polska by Zuza Zak
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton It’s no secret that I have a weakness for cookbooks, I love them, love the way that they give me a window into other worlds of…
Library Cat by Alex Howard
Review by Peter Hobson This book recounts the puzzling behaviour and absurdities of the human world as narrated by the famous, and sadly now missing, Library Cat of Edinburgh University….
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life, by Ed Yong
Review by Terence Jagger This is a truly fascinating book, about the complex ecosystem of microbes that lives inside us, all other animals, and sometimes each other – doing good,…
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Reviewed by Victoria You might think that writing a chronicle of a modern family might be a step down in terms of drama for Ann Patchett from opera singers held…
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi
Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Rose France Reviewed by Karen Langley One of my highlights from 2014 was the discovery of the writings of the…
The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
Translated by Allison Markin Powell Review by Annabel There are some books you can judge by their covers. Portobello books have triumphed in this respect with the evocative ‘levitation’ portraits…
Bright Precious Days by Jay McInerny
Reviewed by Susan Osborne Fans of Jay McInerney’s series of novels which began with Brightness Falls way back in 1992, won’t need to be told who the Calloways are nor will they…
Beast by Paul Kingsnorth
Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Paul Kingsnorth made waves with his first novel, The Wake (2014), which was set around the Norman Conquest and written in a modified version of Old English. It…
Woolfalong
Written by Ali Hope My relationship with Virginia Woolf had a discouraging start when I first read To the Lighthouse in my very early twenties. It was a period when I was…