Glow by Ned Beauman
Reviewed by Simon Thomas When you’ve established yourself as a (Booker longlisted) quirky historical novelist – if such a title can be given to an author whose first two novels…
Reviewed by Simon Thomas When you’ve established yourself as a (Booker longlisted) quirky historical novelist – if such a title can be given to an author whose first two novels…
Reviewed by Kim Forrester If you’ve ever spoken your mind, or stood up for something you believe in when it might have been easier — and safer — to keep…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine How can I best describe to you this wonderful, powerful book? If I tell you that it’s about a man who falls desperately in love with…
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell “You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.” Never has a quotation been as appropriate to a book as that above…
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Round about this time of year publishers, publicists and bookshops turn their attention to Holiday Reading or Beach Reads. Both these terms are somewhat pejorative and…
Reviewed by Helen Parry We Swineys were the hairiest girls in Harristown, Kildare, and the hairiest you’d find anywhere in Ireland from Priesthaggard to Sluggery. That is, our limbs were…
Reviewed by Victoria Best Readers of this delightful series are probably aware that the ITV adaptation will soon be on our screens, with James Norton playing the priest-turned-detective, Sidney Chambers…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine Strike hated paddling on the periphery of a case, forced to watch as others dived for clues, leads and information. He sat up late with the…
Reviewed by T.V. LoCicero The Mysterious Worlds of Henrique Monroe This is the ninth novel by Richard Zimler, an American-born writer who spent his first thirty-four years in the U.S.,…
Translated by John Cullen Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite In diving, decompression is the gradual reduction of ambient pressure as a diver returns to the surface, which allows the inert gases…
Translated by Sorcha McDonagh Reviewed by Harriet Devine Hooray for Hesperus, who sent me this book for review back in the early spring. I picked it up straight away and…
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell 2014 marks the centenary of the birth of Robert Aickman, an author who once encountered demands that you read more of his output – particularly his…
Reviewed by Victoria Best I love novels about life on the stage, though they are a relatively rare genre. Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes was one of the key books of my childhood,…
Translated by Thomas Teal Reviewed by Simon Thomas It’s always interesting to see the genesis of a favourite writer. In Issue 1 of Shiny New Books, I was able to…
Reviewed by Claire Boyle The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham is like a snow scene uninterrupted by footprints, beautiful to look at and perfect in its composition. It opens on a…
Reviewed by Jodie Robson I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content. I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else. It’s…
Reviewed by Victoria Best I do love a book with a really good jaw-dropping twist, and goodness me does The Headmaster’s Wife have one of those. But a device that’s great to…
Translated by Stephen Rendall Reviewed by Falaise The Cemetery of Swallows is a recent addition to Europa Editions’ excellent World Noir imprint, which, as you may guess from its name, features…
Translated by Soren A. Gauger and Guy Torr Reviewed by Karen Langley The boundaries and allegiances in Europe moved and blurred continually during the early 20th century, and many writers…
Reviewed by Victoria Best It is November 1963 and Nell Benjamin is annoyed with her husband, Charlie. The previous evening, they had guests round, and the boorish drunk, Frank Tucker,…
Reviewed by Harriet Devine I think I was about eleven when my mother, responding to my cry that I had nothing to read, gave me a copy of Margery Allingham’s Sweet…
Reviewed by Victoria Best Many years ago, when I was teaching literature at Cambridge University, my good friend Kathryn and I used to laugh together about a certain category of…
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell The Festival of Britain back in 1951 and subsequent World Expos were before my time but I am finding that the 1950s are an attractive era…
Reviewed by Rachel Fenn Wilfred and Eileen, one of Persephone’s new books for the Spring, is also one of their most modern, having been first published in the 1970s. It…