A Novel Calling – Books That Were Written Just For Me
By Alice Farrant Realistically, I know searching for signs in the everyday is silly. Stepping over three drains in a row doesn’t cause bad luck, and if something bad happens…
By Alice Farrant Realistically, I know searching for signs in the everyday is silly. Stepping over three drains in a row doesn’t cause bad luck, and if something bad happens…
“A handful of books that have been really important in your life.” So, that was the brief. For someone who loves reading, loves books and stories . . . how…
Written by Karen Langley If you’re reading Shiny New Books, there’s a good chance that you’re a person who loves books and regards them as having a significant place in…
Written by Eleanor Franzén Love Like Salt by Helen Stevenson In February, I read an advance proof copy of Helen Stevenson’s Love Like Salt, and although I’d never seen a…
Translated by Kira Josefsson Review by Susan Osborne While enduring a light fever, the unnamed narrator of Ia Genberg’s The Details is seized with the urge to read the novel…
Review by Annabel I’ve very much enjoyed reading Nicholas Royle’s books, the novel An English Guide to Birdwatching (reviewed here, with a Q&A with Nicholas here), and then his memoir…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long The author of this book, Jane Marguerite Tippett, came across a previously unknown cache of letters, memoranda and notes written by the Duke of Windsor when she…
Reviewed by Harriet He saw of course that she was an old woman, but she didn’t move or speak like one. A high bosom, handsome, her face had few wrinkles…
Review by Annabel Mat Osman is best known as the bass guitarist of Suede, but he has also become a fine novelist. His first novel, The Ruins, which I reviewed…
Compiled by Annabel It’s time for another one of our themed lists, and what better subject for the Coronation of King Charles III tomorrow than a look back through the…
Reviewed by Michael Eaude This noir novel is the third of a trilogy set in Los Angeles in the late 1940s and featuring private eye Harry Palmer. The golden age…
Review by Lory Widmer Hess I wouldn’t normally expect much of a book created as the novelization of a TV series, but in this case, you know—Neil Gaiman. His first…
Ackroyd, Peter – Alfred Hitchcock (Ju;y-15) VB Andrews, Julie – Home Work (Oct-19) AG Barber, Lynn – A Curious Career (July-14) AG (Billington, Michael – The 101 Greatest Plays from…
Review by Basil Ransome-Davies Back when I aspired to write crime fiction but realised I was a lousy plotter, I used to buy used true-crime magazines on Preston market to…
Review by Basil Ransome-Davies What a prodigious event this book is. Highsmith was an assiduous note-keeper and diarist. The calendar spread is 1941-1995. The editor has condensed ‘an estimated eight…
Review by Anna Hollingsworth Imagine if a book began to narrate your story to you. What kind of voice would that be? Would it have the kind of softness suited…
Reviewed by Harriet ‘Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked’. So we are introduced to the leading character in Colson Whitehead’s new novel. His two most…
Review by Karen Langley Monica Jones, the subject of a new biography by John Sutherland, is a fascinating figure who, up until now, has generally been discussed in terms of…
Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth How do you feel about the prospect of someone having sex with their grandfather? And them justifying it by the fact…
Reviewed by Gill Davies Kate Grenville’s latest novel is a wonderful continuation of her investigation of Australian history and the people who made it. In her best known novel, The…
Reviewed by Harriet Grief fills the room up of my absent child,Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,Remembers me of…
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…
Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2010 I read Emma Donoghue’s best selling, prize winning Room. I admired it but I can’t say I enjoyed it. Not only because the story…
Introduced by Juliane Römhild, with notes by Kate Macdonald Review by Karen Langley Elizabeth von Arnim is probably best known nowadays for her novel The Enchanted April, a warm and delightful story…