December 18, 2020 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…
December 17, 2020 Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe 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…
December 17, 2020 The Stubborn Light of Things by Melissa Harrison & The Consolation of Nature by Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott & Peter Marren 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…
December 17, 2020 Spotlight on Publishers: Renard Press Questions by Karen Langley 2020 has in many ways been the year of independent publishers; print books have been fighting back against the march…
December 16, 2020 I Don’t Want to Go to the Taj Mahal: Stories of a Birmingham Boy by Charlie Hill Review by Eleanor Updegraff It can be difficult to get other people interested in your life. Many authors have tried, many have failed –…
December 16, 2020 The Story of Keth by Blanche Girouard 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…
December 15, 2020 Artifact by Arlene Heyman 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…
December 15, 2020 Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell 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,…
December 15, 2020 Miss Mole by E H Young 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…
December 10, 2020 Dearly by Margaret Atwood & other poetry highlights of 2020 By Rebecca Foster Dearly by Margaret Atwood In her career of more than five decades, Margaret Atwood has produced work in an astounding range…
December 10, 2020 The Fragments of My Father by Sam Mills 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…
December 10, 2020 Revolutionary Women from Gallic Books 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…
December 9, 2020 Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World, by Vaclac Smil 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…
December 9, 2020 Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel, by Rachel Holmes 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…
December 8, 2020 The Haunting of Amelia Fielding, by Kate Summerscale 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…
December 8, 2020 Death Goes on Skis – Nancy Spain 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…
December 8, 2020 On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong Paperback review by Anna Hollingsworth One way for a book to land a blow is to describe dark, brutal matters but to dress them…
December 3, 2020 It’s the End of the World by Adam Roberts Reviewed by Annabel I learned a new word this year. ‘Eschatology’ is defined as ‘the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the…
December 3, 2020 That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Kevin Barry is known for his short stories, and with good reason. It has been eight years since his last…
December 3, 2020 Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman by Rebecca Tamás 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…
December 1, 2020 The Lost and the Damned by Olivier Norek Translated by Nick Caistor Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel by Olivier Norek to be translated into English. It was first…
December 1, 2020 Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the world by Mark Aldridge 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…
December 1, 2020 Follies: An Architectural Journey by Rory Fraser Reviewed by Liz Dexter A delightful little book put out by a relatively new publisher founded in 2017 with a rather intriguing list, this…
