A Shiny Merry Christmas
By Annabel and Harriet It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? As if the pandemic lockdown wasn’t enough, in early April, Annabel managed to accidentally delete Shiny New Books –…
By Annabel and Harriet It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? As if the pandemic lockdown wasn’t enough, in early April, Annabel managed to accidentally delete Shiny New Books –…
Reviewed by Annabel Jonathan Coe’s latest novel couldn’t be further from his Costa-winning Middle England (which I reviewed for Shiny here), which examined 21st century Englishness as we went about…
By Rebecca Foster The Stubborn Light of Things collects five and a half years’ worth of Melissa Harrison’s monthly Nature Notebook columns for The Times. The book falls into two…
Questions by Karen Langley 2020 has in many ways been the year of independent publishers; print books have been fighting back against the march of the e-book, and recently any…
Review by Eleanor Updegraff It can be difficult to get other people interested in your life. Many authors have tried, many have failed – often simply by taking themselves too…
Reviewed by Rob Spence Blanche Girouard, born in 1898, was a prominent figure in the Anglo-Irish aristocracy of the early twentieth century. Her father was the Marquess of Waterford, and…
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Lottie (or Dr Charlotte Kristin Hart Levinson, to give her full name), the protagonist of 77-year-old New York City psychiatrist Arlene Heyman’s debut novel, is determined…
Reviewed by Liz Dexter I greatly enjoyed reading Nancy Campbell’s meditation on the icy places of the world, The Library of Ice. last year, so when I was alerted that…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I seem to have spent most of my life rummaging around in second hand bookshops and in so doing have come across treasures and titles about…
By Rebecca Foster Dearly by Margaret Atwood In her career of more than five decades, Margaret Atwood has produced work in an astounding range of genres: literary fiction, children’s books,…
Reviewed by Harriet Sam Mills’ ‘memoir of madness, love, and being a carer’ starts on a Friday night in early 2016. Sam’s father has been locked in a bathroom for two…
Reviewed by Karen Langley French literature doesn’t lack a wide range of great women writers; the names which spring most readily to mind are those like George Sand, Colette, and…
Reviewed by Annabel If you, or a potential recipient of this book for Christmas, are a fan of Tim Harford on BBC Radio 4’s More Or Less – a programme…
Reviewed by Rob Spence I recently watched the Ethiopia episode of Afua Hirsch’s excellent series African Renaissance, in which I was startled to see an interview with Sylvia Pankhurst’s daughter-in-law,…
Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies Believe it or not, the occult is always a source of fascination. For the persuaded, it offers an expanded view of reality, free from the constraints…
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Nancy Spain’s name rang a bell when I saw Virago were going to republish some of her books, but I couldn’t quite place it. I think…
Paperback review by Anna Hollingsworth One way for a book to land a blow is to describe dark, brutal matters but to dress them in a language that is the…
Reviewed by Annabel I learned a new word this year. ‘Eschatology’ is defined as ‘the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and…
Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Kevin Barry is known for his short stories, and with good reason. It has been eight years since his last collection, Dark Lies the Island, so…
Review by Peter Reason. This elegant and engaging collection of seven essays by poet and critic Rebecca Tamás—her first prose collection—is beautifully produced as a slim volume by the independent…
Translated by Nick Caistor Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel by Olivier Norek to be translated into English. It was first published in France in 2013 and…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long When I was younger and read every Agatha Christie book I could lay my hands on, she always produced a book at the festive season and…
Reviewed by Liz Dexter A delightful little book put out by a relatively new publisher founded in 2017 with a rather intriguing list, this would make a lovely gift for…