Icebreaker: A Voyage Far North by Horatio Clare
Horatio Clare, who is quite an accomplished nature and travel writer, having a book on container ships and several on birds to his name, takes a journey to the far…
The Runagates Club by John Buchan
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is a splendid book for all those who revel in the scary, the heroic and the unusual. Anyone familiar with John Buchan’s best known novel, The…
A Chelsea Concerto by Frances Faviell
Reviewed by Kate Macdonald This is the first of the new reprint series from the Dean Street Press to be curated by the Furrowed Middlebrow blog, a truly admirable enterprise. They…
The Apothecary’s Shop by Roberto Tiraboschi
Translated by Katherine Gregor Reviewed by Terence Jagger In early twelfth century Venice set we our scene, although the cod historical touch is maybe just a little unfair, there is…
The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk
Translated by Ekin Oklap Review by Rob Spence A new novel by Orhan Pamuk is always an event, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It’s an absorbing story, set in the…
Fame is the Spur by Howard Spring
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Fame Is the Spur (originally published in 1940) is the second out-of-print Howard Spring novel reissued by Head of Zeus’s Apollo imprint, following last year’s release…
City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya
Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov Reviewed by Karen Langley If asked to name any of the great Russian writers of the 19th century, most Anglophone readers would probably come up…
American War by Omar el Akkad
Reviewed by Max Dunbar Altered States of America Joan Didion’s recently released notebooks capture the feeling of the American South as it must have been as she drove through it…
The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler
Review by Annabel While I can’t claim to read anywhere near the volume of old and newly reprinted novels that some of my Shiny colleagues do – perennially falling for…
Progress – Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future Johan Norberg
Reviewed by Terence Jagger As Carly Simon sang in 1971, ‘These are the good old days’. This is a fascinating book, and one you shouldn’t really read in one go…
Between the Wars 1919-1939 by Philip Ziegler
Review by Terence Jagger So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years –Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l’entre deux guerres T S Eliot, Four…
A History of Children’s Books in 100 Books by Roderick Cave and Sarah Ayad
Reviewed by Harriet Earlier this year I reviewed Martin Edwards’ Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, and very good it was too. So when I spotted this one, also…
The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe by Franziska zu Reventlow
Translated by James J. Conway Reviewed by Lizzy Siddal Countess Franziska zu Reventlow was born into the German nobility, and lived in the castle at Husum in Schleswig-Holstein, where none other…