Lessons by Ian McEwan
Review by Julie Barham Ian McEwan’s output is made up of a great variety of types of novels, going from the specific to the general, and sometimes back again. He…
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Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie
Review by Susan Osborne I’ve read all Kamila Shamsie’s novels and, despite enjoying each of them, Burnt Shadows remained my favourite, but with its exploration of ‘80s Pakistan and contemporary…
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Review by Susan Osborne Miriam Toews’ Fight Night takes the form of a letter written by nine-year-old Swiv to her father who her grandmother has told her is off fighting…
A Death in the Parish by The Reverend Richard Coles
Review by Julie Barham I often seek out what can be called “cosy crime” or at least crime novels that are not too brutal or police procedural. Richard Coles is…
Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book by Emma Smith
Review by Liz Dexter In stressing users of the First Folio, then, this book is not concerned with the discussions of how the Folio came to be published, the provenance…
Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words by Jenni Nuttall
Review by Liz Dexter The history of women’s words, it turns out, is full of surprises, of things which aren’t necessarily what you’d expect. Even our basics have unfamiliar beginnings….
6 Sides of Lockdown Literature
By Anne Goodwin How has the Covid pandemic affected your reading? Have you lapped up lockdown literature or have you avoided it – cliché alert – like the plague? For…
Twice Round the Clock by Billie Houston
Reviewed by Harriet It’s been a while since we reviewed a British Library Crime Classic on here, so it’s a pleasure to write about this recent one, the only novel…
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela
Review by Annabel I discovered Leila Aboulela with her previous novel Bird Summons, in which three Muslim women living in Edinburgh go on a road trip and spiritual quest to…
My Life and I, by Betty Bendell
Reviewed by Harriet One of the problems with bounding spontaneously through life, I’ve discovered, is that people do tend to react to me quite strongly. I’d like to say that…
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
Review by Max Dunbar The Savannah of George Dawes Green‘s mystery novel is full of tourists. Not regular tourists. These tourists ride around in the back of a hearse. In…
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster With five absorbing novels published in eight years, Claire Fuller has rapidly become one of the essential voices in contemporary literary fiction. Her accolades include a…
Dockland: Smokestacks and Slums: In the Shadows of British Industry, by Cedric Greenwood
Reviewed by Gill Davies I was intrigued by the title of this book, which didn’t announce itself as a traditional industrial history, and by its format – it looks rather…
Broken: Mending and Repair in a Throwaway World by Katie Treggiden
Review by Liz Dexter These are all menders and remakers working in collaboration with nature. They understand that as humans we are part of the natural world and that we…
Wish I Was Here: An Anti-Memoir by M. John Harrison
Review by Karen Langley M. John Harrison is a writer who’s been pushing the boundaries of fiction for decades; from his early sci fi works, through the fantasies (or are…
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays, by Barry Lopez
Review by Peter Reason The late Barry Lopez is regarded by many as the doyen of travel and nature writers – although he and many others dislike these terms, preferring…
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Translated by Ralph Manheim, illustrated by Marie-Alice Harel Review by Lory Widmer Hess He picked up the book and examined it from all sides. It was bound in copper-colored silk,…
Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
Translated by Elena Bormaschenko Illustrated and Introduced by Dave McKean Reviewed by Annabel I have long meant to read this SF classic by the Strugatsky brothers, published in 1972, and…
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
Reviewed by Rob Spence A new novel from Tan Twan Eng is a major literary event. His many admirers have been waiting over ten years since the publication of his…
The Home by Penelope Mortimer
Reviewed by Harriet I’ve just finished reading this very good and very upsetting novel. It’s good because Mortimer was an excellent writer, vivid, perceptive, witty. But it’s upsetting because it’s…
Sea Bean by Sally Huband
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is a book I’ve been anticipating for a couple of years. I think I first heard about it via Stephen Rutt, a nature writer I…
Shy by Max Porter
Reviewed by Annabel Now that he’s four novels into his career with Shy, it would be fair to say that Max Porter is one of the UK’s most inventive novelists….
Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London by Charlie Taverner
Reviewed by Harriet Nowadays, when most people hear the term street food, they will be thinking about the emergence in the past ten or so years of a wonderful range…
Shiny Archive Reading List #4 – The Kings & Queens of England
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…