January 28, 2021 Right After the Weather by Carol Anshaw Paperback review by Susan Osborne Set in Carol Anshaw’s home town of Chicago in the months before and after the 2016 election, Right After…
January 28, 2021 The Fresh and the Salt: The Story of the Solway by Ann Lingard Reviewed by Peter Reason When I was a small boy—and this memory must reach back to around 1950—I played with a wooden puzzle made…
January 26, 2021 Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp Reviewed by Harriet Ever since I started reading book review blogs, some years ago now, I have often encountered Margery Sharp’s name, generally accompanied…
January 26, 2021 The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack Reviewed by Terence Jagger Katie Mack is an American astrophysicist, but her writing is very informal and almost journalistic or chatty – which is…
January 21, 2021 The Searcher by Tana French Reviewed by Annabel A new novel from Tana French, Irish author of the acclaimed Dublin Murders series is always worth waiting for. Her latest,…
January 21, 2021 The Passenger: Japan Reviewed by Terence Jagger Early last year, Europa launched a new imprint “for explorers of the world”: The Passenger. Now, the list includes Berlin,…
January 19, 2021 The Frozen River: Seeking Silence in the Himalaya by James Crowden Reviewed by Peter Reason Opening this book, I am immediately drawn in: ‘Silence, snow and solitude have got hold of me and will not…
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…
