April 27, 2017 The Devil and Webster by Jean Hanff Korelitz Reviewed by Harriet I’d never heard of Jean Hanff Korelitz when her 2014 novel, You Should Have Known, landed unsolicited in my mailbox. I…
April 27, 2017 Q&A with Emma Henderson about ‘The Valentine House’ Questions by Annabel Annabel: Taking the cog railway up the mountain and then a hike from the station brings back happy memories for me of…
April 27, 2017 The Valentine House by Emma Henderson Reviewed by Annabel Here they come. Here they are. Les anglais, the English, les rosbifs. After a rather attention-grabbling opening, in which the ageing…
April 25, 2017 Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore Reviewed by Harriet I wanted to write about people whose voices have not echoed through time and whose struggles and passions have been hidden…
April 25, 2017 Tom Tiddler’s Ground by Ursula Orange Reviewed by Simon One of the authors I’ve been on the look-out for, for years, is Ursula Orange – entirely the responsibility of Scott…
April 25, 2017 David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet by Thomas Dilworth Review by Rob Spence Ask a reasonably well-educated person to name some Anglophone modernist poets, and you are sure to hear the names of…
April 20, 2017 Foxes Unearthed: A story of love and loathing in modern Britain by Lucy Jones Review by Hayley Anderton Where I live – middle of a city, no garden, bins inside, and nobody feeding them, foxes are a delight…
April 20, 2017 How to Be Human by Paula Cocozza Reviewed by Alice Farrant At 35, Mary is single and living in the house she once shared with her partner. She goes to work…
April 20, 2017 Mikhail and Margarita by Julie Lekstrom Himes Review by Karen Langley In this centenary year of the Russian Revolution, much attention is being focused on Soviet Russia and its culture. One…
April 18, 2017 Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison Reviewed by Rob Spence I come from Manchester, so I know about rain. Actually, Manchester’s reputation as the rainy city is, as I am…
April 18, 2017 A House in Flanders, by Michael Jenkins Reviewed by Helen Parry In the extreme northern part of France lies the plain of Flanders, a great fertile expanse rolling inland from the…
April 13, 2017 Gone: A Girl, a Violin, and a Life Unstrung by Min Kym Reviewed by Harriet For some reason I’ve always been fascinated by child prodigies – people who seem to have been born with an innate…
April 13, 2017 A Separation by Katie Kitamura Reviewed by Marina Sofia It is easier to tell you what A Separation is not, rather than what it is. It is not a…
April 11, 2017 My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal Paperback review by Alice Farrant My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal is a powerful story that discusses race, mental illness, and family, through…
April 11, 2017 Guest Post: Kit de Waal – on being mixed race Kit de Waal is the author of My Name is Leon which was published last year to great acclaim – see our review of the novel here. We…
April 6, 2017 The Lark by Edith Nesbit Reviewed by Harriet Last year there was a bit of a flutter in the blogging world when Edith Nesbit’s complete works popped up on…
April 6, 2017 Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett Review by Julie Barham I think that the overwhelming sense or atmosphere of this book is sadness. Nevertheless, it is a faithful picture of…
April 4, 2017 All the Places I’ve Ever Lived by David Gaffney Reviewed by Basil Ransome Davies David Gaffney has earned himself a distinctive reputation as a writer of ‘flash fictions’ – micro-stories, variable in tone…
April 4, 2017 Walking in Berlin by Franz Hessel Translated by Amanda DeMarco Reviewed by Rob Spence Berlin is one of my favourite cities, and I have spent a lot of time walking…
