October 31, 2019 Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout Reviewed by Harriet I’ve reviewed two of Elizabeth Strout’s novels on Shiny [here] and [here] and both were brilliant. But possibly my favourite up…
October 31, 2019 Find Me by André Aciman Review by Anna Hollingsworth There are two kinds of novels to which I don’t want to see a sequel. There are, of course, the…
October 29, 2019 Home Work by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton Review by Annabel Julie Andrews’s first volume of memoir, Home, told us of her childhood, growing up during the war, and…
October 24, 2019 Violencia – A New History of Spain: Past, Present and the Future of the West, by Jason Webster Review by Michael Eaude. Jason Webster takes a long, long view of Spanish history. Most history books concentrate on small chunks of time: this…
October 22, 2019 How to Read a Photograph: Understanding, Interpreting and Enjoying the Great Photographers by Ian Jeffrey Shiny New Books / Review by Liz Dexter Of course,…
October 17, 2019 The Summer Isles by Philip Marsden Reviewed by Peter Reason The Summer Isles is an account of a single-handed voyage from the south coast of England round the west of…
October 15, 2019 Inheritance by Jenny Eclair Review by Laura Marriott “Beginnings, middles and ends; Peggy, Serena, Natasha and Bel. This is the room that binds them, this is how consequences…
October 15, 2019 Gloucester Crescent by William Miller Review by Annabel Nestled between Primrose Hill and Camden Town in NW1, it’s hard to believe that Gloucester Crescent (and Regents Park Terrace which…
October 10, 2019 Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke Review by Gill Davies This powerful and engrossing novel continues a series of crime novels in which Attica Locke uses plot and suspense to…
October 10, 2019 Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie Review by Peter Reason Kathleen Jamie is primarily known as a poet, but her prose writing is eagerly anticipated and widely acclaimed. Surfacing is…
October 8, 2019 The Dutch House by Ann Patchett Reviewed by Harriet Ann Patchett believes in goodness, arguably a most unfashionable belief in today’s world. In the bookstore she runs, there’s a sign:…
October 8, 2019 Art Essentials: Street Art by Simon Armstrong Review by Liz Dexter The Art Essentials series aims to be engaging, accessible, authoritative, richly illustrated and expertly written and conceived, and with a…
October 3, 2019 The Second Sleep by Robert Harris Review by Basil Ransome-Davies In his indispensable primer What Is History? E. H. Carr underlines the point that ‘History’ has a double meaning: both the events,…
October 1, 2019 The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Reviewed by Ali Hope Although I have pre-ordered new releases a few times before it’s not something I do very often – and never…
October 1, 2019 Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell Review by Simon As the cover of Confessions of a Bookseller tells us, Bythell is an international bestseller. A couple of years ago, The…
