August 30, 2018 The King’s Witch by Tracy Borman Reviewed by Julie Barham This is the debut novel written by Tracy Borman, who is a popular historian and Curator of Historic Royal Palaces….
August 28, 2018 The Town by Shaun Prescott Reviewed by Harriet This is how things are going to be from now on. This is how they’re going to stay. History can end,…
August 28, 2018 Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers Review by Annabel Becky Chambers’ third novel is set in the same galactic milieu as her first two. It can be read as a…
August 23, 2018 Learning to Die by Thomas Maloney Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Three decades of life promise a quarter-life crisis: your 20s are on their way into your 30s, you’re forced to…
August 23, 2018 City of Light by Rupert Christiansen Reviewed by Karen Langley The city of Paris exerts an eternal fascination; chic and glamorous, the haunt of revolutionaries and intellectuals, and stuffed with…
August 21, 2018 The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas Reviewed by Annabel The first thing you need to do with this sparkling debut novel is to suspend your disbelief. Just accept that time…
August 16, 2018 King of the North Wind: The Life of Henry II in Five Acts by Claudia Gold Review by Liz Dexter Henry II, father of Richard Lionheart and King John, husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine and murderer by instruction of Thomas…
August 16, 2018 The Idiot by Elif Batuman Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth In his The Idiot – the original – Dostoyevsky set out on a mission to depict “the positively good and…
August 14, 2018 To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine Reviewed by Annabel When punk happened, although I was the right age – in my later teens, but I’d already diverted off into prog…
August 14, 2018 The Bright Side of Life by Emile Zola Translated by Andrew Rothwell Reviewed by Harriet Fans of Monty Python may have a bit of trouble with this title – I’ve had their…
August 9, 2018 How to Change your Mind: The new science of psychedelics by Michael Pollan Review by Peter Reason ‘The soul should always stand ajar.’ It is fitting that Michael Pollan introduces his latest book on the resurgence in…
August 7, 2018 Girl with Dove by Sally Bayley Reviewed by Harriet If you’ve read Annabel’s account of the Golden Booker presentation, you’ll have noticed that one of the judges, Lemn Sissay, urged…
August 2, 2018 The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser Reviewed by Kim Forrester There’s something about Michelle de Kretser’s silky prose combined with her superbly drawn characters and her forensic eye for detail…
August 2, 2018 Sentimental Tales by Mikhail Zoshchenko Translated by Boris Dralyuk Review by Karen Langley Russian satirical writing has a rich heritage, stretching all the way back to the time of…
