June 29, 2017 White Tears by Hari Kunzru Review by Annabel One thing you can say about Kunzru’s previous novels – they will always have interesting themes that connect with the zeitgeist…
June 29, 2017 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Reviewed by Ali First published in 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale seemed to speak to the generation coming to political awareness in that decade. Back…
June 27, 2017 Popular: Why Being Liked is the Secret to Greater Success and Happiness by Mitch Prinstein Reviewed by Liz Dexter Mitch Prinstein is an expert on popularity, but he uses lots of other people’s experiments as well as his own…
June 27, 2017 Letty Fox: Her Luck by Christina Stead Reviewed by Karen Langley Australian-born Christina Stead led a lively and picaresque life, spending parts of her time in the USA, France, Spain and…
June 22, 2017 Letters From Klara and Other Stories by Tove Jansson Translated by Thomas Teal Reviewed by Kate Gardner This penultimate collection of Finnish literary giant Jansson’s short stories has taken 26 years to be…
June 22, 2017 The Stella Prize and its 2017 Winner By Isobel Blackthorn Could there ever be enough literary prizes to satisfy the ambition of authors? For a very small literary market, Australia has…
June 20, 2017 A conversation with Sally Rooney, author of Conversations With Friends Interview by Lucy Unwin We caught up with Sally at the Hay Festival 2017 where she told us: The foursome at the centre of…
June 20, 2017 Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney Reviewed by Lucy Unwin That the Bechdel Test for movies even exists has to be one of the more depressing minor details of modern…
June 20, 2017 Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor Review by David Hebblethwaite Jon McGregor is a writer whose work deserves the fullest attention, which it will repay with some extraordinary reading experiences….
June 15, 2017 Questions for Amanda Craig about her novel, The Lie of the Land Interview by Annabel Annabel: I loved reading The Lie of the Land, and it had me giggling all the way through. Before I discuss some of…
June 15, 2017 The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig Reviewed by Annabel Quentin and Lottie want to divorce – but they can’t afford to. Well, can’t afford to sell their big London house…
June 15, 2017 No Cunning Plan: My Story by Tony Robinson Review by Laura Marriott Like many people I first came to know Tony Robinson through his role as Baldrick on Blackadder, before following him…
June 13, 2017 The Accusation by Bandi Translated by Deborah Smith Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Look at all these people, sobbing over a death that happened three months ago, starving because…
June 13, 2017 The Santiago Pilgrimage by Jean-Christophe Rufin Translated by Martina Devis & Malcolm Imrie Reviewed by Terence Jagger Monsieur Rufin is an impressive man, having founded Médecins sans Frontières, been an…
June 8, 2017 Running Blind by Desmond Bagley Review by Annabel I’m delighted that the vogue for republishing the best thrillers from the 1960s onwards as exemplified by the books of Lionel…
June 8, 2017 The Photographer by Meike Ziervogel Review by Hayley Anderton I first heard of Meike Ziervogel in the early days of her publishing house, Peirene Press, when I was offered…
June 6, 2017 Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon Translated by Linda Coverdale Reviewed by Harriet What was he doing there? A hundred times, in the middle of an investigation, he’d had the…
June 6, 2017 Checkpoint by Jean-Christophe Rufin Translated by Alison Anderson Review by Terence Jagger The first character we meet is Maud, a young and naive Frenchwoman who is apparently badly…
June 1, 2017 Deaths of the Poets by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts Review by Harriet The deaths of poets matter to us because they become a lens through which to look at the poems. So say…
June 1, 2017 Aphra Behn: A Secret Life by Janet Todd Review by Harriet ‘Aphra Behn was a woman who wore masks’. So says Janet Todd at the beginning of this monumental, newly revised biography…