Introducing the Shiny Book Club
We hope that some of you have managed to read our first Shiny Book Club choice – Laline Paull’s The Bees. We left you with some questions below to think about…
The Writing of Our Endless Numbered Days
By Claire Fuller In 2011 a teenage boy turned up in Berlin claiming that he had been living in the German forests with his father for the previous five years…
Five Fascinating Facts About… Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Compiled by the Shiny editors. We join in the celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with our own little tribute: 1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland started off…
Celebrating the Centenary of Ladybird Books
Written by Steerforth The reading public is usually fairly indifferent to publishing centenaries, but the 100th anniversary of Ladybird has been a phenomenal success, celebrated with books, merchandise, a popular…
The Year of Reading Dangerously (and Seven Years of Living with the Consequences).
By Andy Miller About ten years ago, I had a bright idea. It involved reading a baker’s dozen of books I had always meant to read but had never got…
Shiny New Author: Sarah Bannan on Weightless
Interview by Victoria V: There’s been a spate of social media bullying cases in the news these past few years; was there any one particular event that sparked the idea…
From Z to A, how Zweig inspired Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
By Diana Cheng The Grand Budapest Hotel won four Oscars at the 87th Academy Awards this February. At the end of the film, leading the credits, is the acknowledgement of Stefan Zweig…
On Writing ‘Three Strange Angels’
By Laura Kalpakian I often think of the novel, any novel, really, as a small boat, initially moored to a certain well known shore, an incident, say, the writer’s own…
Shiny New Author: Cecilia Ekbäck
Interviewed by Harriet H: Cecilia, we learn from your website that you spent twenty years in marketing after leaving university. Did you always harbour the ambition to be a writer,…
Books for Spring: A Reading List
Selected by Danielle Simpson The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Any list of spring reading surely must begin with Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. It begins one dreary April day in…
Reading in Translation
By Jean Morris The right words will come to me, because I am now translating from the heart, not from the head.Maureen Freely One of my favourite reviewers remarked a…
Interview with Jane Thynne on her Clara Vine Novels
Interview by Annabel A: Firstly, congratulations on A War of Flowers! It took the life and career of Clara Vine (Anglo-German film actress and British spy) to new and ever more thrilling…
An Interview with Phillip Lopate
Interview by Ingrid Wassenaar 1. Phillip, how did you come to essay writing? I came to essays through fiction. When I was starting out, I loved Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, or…
Spotlight on Publishers: British Library Crime Classics
By Robert Davies The British Library is younger than you might think for such an august institution – it was only established with a split from the British Museum in…
Researching ‘A Curious Friendship, by Anna Thomasson
I first came across Rex Whistler some years ago at Plas Newydd on Anglesey. There he had painted his largest and most famous mural, begun in 1936. The dining room…
Five Fascinating Facts About… Winston Graham
Compiled by Annabel. 1. Born in 1908 in Manchester, the Graham family moved to Perranporth in Cornwall when Winston was seventeen. He stayed there until 1959, eventually settling in East…
The Eds Discuss: Book Groups
Love them or loathe them, we’ve all been in one! The editors discuss the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to book groups. 1. What sort of…
Shiny New Author: An interview with Frances Vick
In the second of our series where we interview new authors, Annabel talks to Frances Vick, author of Chinaski. A. When did you first realise you wanted to be an author…
Spotlight on Publishers: Notting Hill Editions
An Interview with Notting Hill Editions Written by Victoria Best If you’ve ever seen a book by Notting Hill Editions, you’re not likely to forget it. Elegant hardbacks with embossed…
Biographical Notes: Frances Vernon
Written by Harriet The life of Frances Vernon, whose six novels have just been reprinted by Faber Finds, makes for sad reading. Born, as Georgina Frances Vernon, on 1 December…
Five Fascinating Facts About… Virginia Woolf
Written by Simon Thomas We’re featuring a few Virginia Woolf titles in this issue, so it seemed a good time to turn attention to her in our Five Fascinating Facts…
Reading Diversity
By Marilyn Dell Brady For the past three years, I have been reading globally and diversely, reading books written by people of color. The result has been exciting. By definition, people of…
Michelle Bailat-Jones on writing Fog Island Mountains
My novel Fog Island Mountains is about a mixed-culture family living in southern Japan. The novel centers on the father’s unexpected diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and his wife’s flight from and denial…
2015 Books into Films
Written by Diana Cheng By now, you probably have seen some of the movie adaptations listed in the previous BookBuzz, like Gone Girl, Unbroken, and The Imitation Game. Here, to kick off 2015, we…