The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Reviewed by Simon Thomas Edith Olivier’s The Love Child (1927) was her first novel, and easily her best. Although rediscovered as a ‘modern classic’ in 1981 by Virago, it has not been…
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The Hawk & Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch
Reviewed by Jodie Robson Over the last few weeks I’ve been rediscovering an almost forgotten aspect of childhood in the company of two very exciting young men: Phillip D’Aubigny, Knight…
Mind Change: How Digital Technologies are Leaving Their Mark on our Brains by Susan Greenfield
Reviewed by Stefanie. Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains, Susan Greenfield has provided us with an even-keeled examination of the intersection of digital technology…
J by Howard Jacobson
Reviewed by Max Dunbar Milan Kundera wrote that ‘The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.’ Winston Smith, of course, worked as an editor in…
The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Having enjoyed Daisy Goodwin’s first novel, The Last Duchess and enjoyed it greatly I was looking forward to her second, The Fortune Hunter, and even more so when I…
The Good Comrade by Una Silberrad
Review by Jane Carter I must confess that until quite recently I had never heard of Una L Silberrad, but now that this lovely book has fallen into my hands…
Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Story of Huguette Clark and the Loss of one of the World’s Greatest Fortunes by Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell Jr.
Reviewed by Frances Ambler Billionaires don’t just slip off the radar. Well, so you’d think. Huguette Clark, one of America’s wealthiest women, almost succeeded in doing exactly that. However, as Empty…
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
Reviewed by Harriet Devine I think I must have been about seven or eight when I was given this book for Christmas. I doubt if it can have been the…
The Ghost and Mrs Muir by R.A. Dick
Reviewed by Simon Nobody loves a good reprint better than I do, and so I was quite excited to see a series from Vintage called ‘Vintage Movie Classics’, wherein they…
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I was initially attracted to this book by it’s absolutely stunning cover (I have a soft spot for William Nicholson so enjoyed the homage) which in…
The Making of Home by Judith Flanders
Reviewed by Harriet One of the most important distinctions made by Judith Flanders in this fascinating book is that between the concepts of house and home. While a house is…
The New World by Andrew Motion
Reviewed by Rowland Jones Our narrator, Jim Hawkins… Ah, Jim Hawkins as of Treasure Island you may ask? Well, yes and no. This is Jim Hawkins the son, who has also been…
The Forgotten Smile by Margaret Kennedy
Reviewed by Simon Thomas The Ladies of Lyndon, Margaret Kennedy’s first novel, was published in 1923, while the one which followed in 1924 – The Constant Nymph – was an enormous bestseller,…
This is the End by Stella Benson
Reviewed by Simon Thomas One of the more unusual novelists being reprinted at the moment is Stella Benson. Her work is issued by Michael Walmer, a one-man publishing house that…
Lucky Us by Amy Bloom
Reviewed by Victoria Best ‘My father’s wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us.’ So begins this…
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What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund
Reviewed by Rebecca Hussey The immediate effect of reading Peter Mendelsund’s What We See When We Read was to make me want to pick up a novel right away and start thinking…
The Long Way Home by Louise Penny
Reviewed by Ann In many respects, How the Light Gets In, Louise Penny’s previous novel about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, tied up a plethora of loose ends. Throughout the earlier books in…
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Reviewed by Simon If you’ve ever wondered what sort of prose Catherine Morland might have read before she ventured to Northanger Abbey, then look no further than Horace Walpole’s The Castle of…
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Reviewed by Jane Carter My mother, when she was a very small girl, was given a beautiful copy of The Happy Prince and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde. She loved that book,…
Orfeo by Richard Powers
Reviewed by Susan Osborne This is the first year that the Man Booker Prize has been opened up to include entries from the U.S.A. Out of a longlist of thirteen,…
Under the Tripoli Sky by Kamal Ben Hameda
Translated by Adriana Hunter Reviewed by Bookgazing. At the beginning of Under the Tripoli Sky, the book’s young narrator, Hadachinou, is subject to a bris; a ritual Jewish circumcision. The bris…
Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton
Reviewed by Harriet Devine There is one characteristic which may be safely said to belong to nearly all happily married couples – that of desiring to see equally happy marriages…
Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas
Reviewed by Kim Forrester Australian writer Christos Tsiolkas hit the big time with his best-selling novel The Slap in 2008. It won the ALS Gold Medal (2008), the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best…
Playing to the Gallery by Grayson Perry
Reviewed by Annabel Grayson Perry CBE RA, the Turner Prize-winning transvestite potter, is becoming a national treasure – so much so, that the BBC invited him to give their annual…