David Bowie, Enid Blyton and the sun machine by Nicholas Royle
Review by Annabel I’ve very much enjoyed reading Nicholas Royle’s books, the novel An English Guide to Birdwatching (reviewed here, with a Q&A with Nicholas here), and then his memoir…
Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII, by Jane Marguerite Tippett
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long The author of this book, Jane Marguerite Tippett, came across a previously unknown cache of letters, memoranda and notes written by the Duke of Windsor when she…
The Stirrings: A Memoir in Northern Time by Catherine Taylor
Review by Annabel I’ve long followed Catherine Taylor on Twitter, where she has a straight-talking view of things literary and often political. A former publisher, she’s now a freelance writer,…
Dearest Darling Sophie: Letters of George Devine, 1940-1945, edited by Harriet Devine
Review by Rob Spence Unless you are Tristram Shandy, you probably don’t know when and where you were conceived. If you are Harriet Devine, on the other hand, you know…
Landscapes of Silence: From Childhood to the Arctic, by Hugh Brody
Review by Peter Reason On the first page of Landscapes of Silence is a list of the many words for snow in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit hunters and…
Remainders of the Day by Shaun Bythell
Review by Julie Barham A further book recording life in all its humour and honesty, this is a brilliant read which captures so much from the perspective of Shaun Bythell,…
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…
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…
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…
T H White: A Biography, by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Reviewed by Helen Parry Not every writer lives a particularly interesting life (it is, after all, for their sitting down and imagining things that we value them) and not every…
Cary Grant’s Suit: Nine Movies that Made Me the Wreck I Am Today, by Todd McEwen
Review by Annabel North by Northwest isn’t about what happens to Cary Grant, it’s about what happens to his suit. The suit has the adventures, a gorgeous New York suit…
The Man With Miraculous Hands by Joseph Kessel
Translated by Helen Weaver and Leo Raditsa Reviewed by Rob Spence If you were asked to suggest which real-life character was to be played by Woody Harrelson in his next…
A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland & A Fortunate Man by John Berger
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster When I first heard about journalist Polly Morland’s A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story, which was later shortlisted for the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize, I…
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell
Review by Terence Jagger We all know John Donne, poet and preacher, though many don’t realise that; indeed, some apparently don’t realise that they are the same man! But yes,…
A Desperate Business: The Murder of Muriel McKay by Simon Farquhar
Reviewed by Harriet True crime is normally not a genre that attracts me in the least, so why am I reviewing this book? Well, because it tells a fascinating, moving,…
Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries, edited by Alan Taylor
Reviewed by Annabel Sadly, I missed seeing Alan Rickman in Les Liaisons Dangereuses by a few weeks; Greg Hicks had recently taken over the role of the Vicomte de Valmont…
Diplomatic Baggage: Adventures of a Trailing Spouse, by Brigid Keenan
Review by Elaine Simpson-Long Bridget Keenan worked as an editor on Nova magazine, and on the newspapers The Observer and The Sunday Times. I remember reading her pieces and thinking that…
Orwell and Empire by Douglas Kerr
Review by Karen Langley George Orwell is still regarded as one of the 20th Century’s towering literary figures. Best known for his novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four, he…
Clouds over Paris: The Wartime Notebooks of Felix Hartlaub
Translated by Simon Beattie Review by Karen Langley Felix Hartlaub is a name relatively unknown in the English-speaking world: the son of an art historian/museum director who fell foul of…
A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City by Edward Chisholm
Review by Karen Langley Back in 1933, George Orwell published his groundbreaking work Down and Out in Paris and London, which explored his experiences of poverty in both cities. Now,…
H.D. & Bryher: An Untold Love Story of Modernism by Susan McCabe
Review by Rob Spence 2022 is a significant year in modernist studies: it marks the publication centenary of two of the definitive examples of literary modernism, James Joyce’s Ulysses and…
I Used to Live Here Once by Miranda Seymour
Reviewed by Harriet I discovered Jean Rhys in my twenties, and raced through her three great 1930s novels, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie, Voyage in the Dark, and Good Morning Midnight…
Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul
Reviewed by Karen Langley In recent years, artist Gwen John’s star has risen, with her work nowadays receiving much more acclaim than that of her brother Augustus. However, this was…
Good Pop, Bad Pop: An Inventory by Jarvis Cocker
Review by Annabel Since he first came into the public eye, Jarvis Cocker has always presented a delightful, non-conformist approach to life – droll and at times laconic, at other…