May 31, 2018 The Murder of My Aunt by Richard Hull Reviewed by Harriet ‘From its first appearance in 1934, Richard Hull’s The Murder of my Aunt was recognised as something special in crime fiction’. So…
May 31, 2018 A Dead Rose by Aurora Cáceres Translation, Foreword & Notes by Laura Kanost Reviewed by Karen Langley The female form is often idealised in art and media, from classical sculptures…
May 29, 2018 House of Beauty by Melba Escobar Translated by Elizabeth Bryer Reviewed by Basil Ransome Davies Each time I walk into town from my house I pass at least one nail/beauty…
May 29, 2018 Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima Translated by Geraldine Harcourt Reviewed by Annabel This latest addition to Penguin Classic’s expanding list of new translations in an upmarket paperback format is…
May 24, 2018 Blood on the Tracks: Railway Mysteries, ed. Martin Edwards Reviewed by Karen Langley Golden Age crime, which has had such a revival recently, is renowned for particular tropes and settings; the country house…
May 22, 2018 Islamic Civilization in Thirty Lives: The First 1000 Years by Chase F. Robinson A beautiful object, as you can see from the cover image, this is published to be an accessible introduction to pre-modern Islam, looking at…
May 22, 2018 White Houses by Amy Bloom Reviewed by Susan Osborne I’ve yet to read anything by Amy Bloom that I’ve not loved. Her writing is both deft and empathetic, pressing…
May 17, 2018 Review of The Akeing Heart by Peter Haring Judd Review by Simon How you approach The Akeing Heart will depend largely on how familiar you are with the names Sylvia Townsend Warner, Valentine…
May 17, 2018 Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey Reviewed by Harriet Four years after Emma Healey’s best selling Elizabeth is Missing comes her second novel, Whistle in the Dark. It’s a psychological…
May 15, 2018 Edgar & Lucy by Victor Lodato Reviewed by Alice Farrant For seven years Florence, Lucy and Edgar have lived in the wake of Frank’s death. No one mentions Frank’s passing…
May 10, 2018 The Trick To Time by Kit de Waal Reviewed by Alice Farrant Mona lives a quiet life as a dollmaker, at face value she appears to be an ordinary woman, however, in…
May 10, 2018 Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday Reviewed by Harriet Asymmetry is defined as ‘lack of equality or equivalence between parts’, a definition that applies both to a theme of this…
May 8, 2018 Souvenir (Object Lessons) by Rolf Potts Review by Liz Dexter This book is part of the Object Lessons series, which exists to highlight the hidden lives of ordinary things. This…
May 3, 2018 Tangerine by Christine Mangan Reviewed by Annabel They say that in Tangier, the local hustlers have clocked all the new arrivals within hours – this is what I…
May 3, 2018 Happiness by Aminatta Forna Review by Lucy Unwin “You know how it is with white people. You say it’s race, they tell you you are mistaken. Then they…
May 1, 2018 Our Place: Can we save Britain’s wildlife before it is too late? by Mark Cocker Review by Peter Reason When I was a small boy, back in the 1950s, we were taken on Sunday School outings to the seaside….
May 1, 2018 A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey Reviewed by Harriet A Long Way from Home, as the title implies, is a novel of a journey in more than one sense. An…
