The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Review by Annabel If you enjoy a contemporary horror novel laced with style and humour, you need look no further than the work of Grady Hendrix. I discovered him with…
Art & Design, Craft & Photography
Ecology & Environment, Natural World
Non Fiction
Travel & the World
Tracks: Walking the Ancient Landscapes of Britain by Philip Hughes
Softback review by Liz Dexter This quietly stunning book will appeal to anyone interested in art, landscape, walking, geology, geography, maps and ancient monuments. Deceptively simple paintings reveal both the…
Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils by David Farrier
Review by Peter Reason In 2013, a spring storm uncovered, on the shores of Norfolk, the oldest traces of humanity discovered outside Africa: fossil footprints made by early humans 850,000…
Chatterton Square by E H Young
Reviewed by Harriet When the British Library announced the first three titles in their new Women Writers series, I was delighted see that one of them was Chatterton Square. I…
Well-kept Secrets: The Story of William Wordsworth by Andrew Wordsworth
Reviewed by Harriet As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wordsworth, one of England’s most celebrated poets, much loved by many (apart,…
Rendang by Will Harris
Review by Anna Hollingsworth Will Harris has been described as one of the most important young poets in the UK, and his debut collection more than justifies that epithet. In…
Diary Of A Foreigner In Paris, by Curzio Malaparte
Translated by Stephen Twilley Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies An adjective frequently applied to Curzio Malaparte is ‘colourful’. To the Cambridge dictionary it means ‘vivid, rich, or distinctive in character’, and…
A Shiny Rebuild Update
By Annabel Just under a month ago, we experienced an absolute ‘dis-ah-ster’ (as Craig Revel Horwood would say) at Shiny – which just goes to prove how a little knowledge…
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Evie Wyld’s third novel has the most stunning opening I’ve encountered in a long time. In under a page and a half, it describes a six-year-old…
How It Was by Janet Ellis
Paperback review by Annabel I had been reading and loving the late Clive James’ last book, an anthology of his writing on Philip Larkin (reviewed here by Karen), when up…
On the origins of ‘Pomeranski’, by Gerald Jacobs
Today we are delighted to be taking part in a short blog tour for the novel ‘Pomeranski’ by Gerald Jacobs, just published by Quartet Books. Gerald Jacobs is the literary…
Oats in the North Wheat from the South by Regula Ysewijn
Review by Hayley Anderton I know it’s not the easiest time to get baking supplies, or books, or enough exercise to work off the baking that you can do, but…
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
Review by Ann Maybe as much as twenty years ago I remember a librarian colleague at the University where I was then working saying to me, “Read Anne Tyler”. Most…
The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting
Translated by Deborah Dawkin Review by Harriet Lars Mytting, a Norwegian author, has had great acclaim for his two previous books – the non-fiction Norwegian Wood, a surprise bestseller about…
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley
Review by Annabel Natasha Pulley’s 2015 debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which I reviewed for Shiny here, is still one of the best first novels I’ve read. Set…
You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce
Review by Hayley Anderton You Let Me In is Camilla Bruce’s debut novel, and it marks her out as an author to watch. It is impressively assured with a very…