June 23, 2022 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…
June 21, 2022 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…
June 16, 2022 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…
June 14, 2022 100 Voices: 100 Women Share their Stories of Achievement, ed. Miranda Roszkowski Review by Liz Dexter We need to read about the achievements of women, not least because we are constantly reminded of the achievements of…
June 9, 2022 Snow Widows: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition Through the Eyes of the Women They Left Behind by Katherine MacInnes Review by Liz Dexter “I have chased the Snow Widows through dusty attics and auction rooms, and sifted them from history’s cutting room floors.”…
May 26, 2022 The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes our Lives by Jude Rogers Review by Liz Dexter What role does music really, deeply play in our lives, from our first days to our last? Jude Rogers in…
May 24, 2022 The Palace Papers by Tina Brown Review by Elaine Simpson-Long I recently reviewed a biography of the Queen by Robert Hardman (reviewed here) which I described as an “admirable book”…
May 19, 2022 America Over the Water by Shirley Collins Review by Annabel Shirley Collins is widely regarded as one of the most influential British folk singers of our times. Often singing alongside her…
May 12, 2022 Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month: Birth Notes by Jessica Cornwell & After the Storm by Emma Jane Unsworth Reviewed by Rebecca Foster May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month and so the perfect time to consider two memoirs of postnatal depression, one…
May 10, 2022 Homelands: The History of a Friendship by Chitra Ramaswamy Review by David Hebblethwaite In 2011, journalist Chitra Ramaswamy was sent to interview Henry and Ingrid Wuga, a Jewish couple who had fled Nazi…
April 21, 2022 Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II, by Robert Hardman Review by Elaine Simpson-Long There have been so many books written about ‘Her Maj’ and, I daresay, there will be more in the future,…
April 14, 2022 The Gift of a Radio by Justin Webb Review by Annabel The TV news came on and a lugubrious looking chap in a light-coloured suit with a deep, plummy voice said something…
April 12, 2022 Henry ‘Chips’ Channon: The Diaries 1938-1943 – Volume 2, edited by Simon Heffer Review by Elaine Simpson-Long The second volume of these diaries was delivered by my postman, who was visibly having difficulty handing it over as…
April 5, 2022 Truly Madly by Stephen Galloway Reviewed by Harriet ‘Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier and the Romance of the Century’ is the subtitle of this joint biography by Stephen Galloway. The…
March 17, 2022 The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya Review by Terence Jagger This is a lively and compelling biography of one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century, who has somehow…
March 1, 2022 No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy: Memoirs of a Working-Class Reader by Mark Hodkinson Review by Liz Dexter While he’s now a publisher and editor with his own imprint, Hodkinson grew up in a terrace house in Rochdale…
February 8, 2022 Everything is True: A Junior Doctor’s Story of Life, Death and Grief in a Time of Pandemic, by Roopa Farooki Reviewed by Rebecca Foster I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of Covid-19 chronicles. My favourites of the twenty-some I’ve read…
December 9, 2021 Hey Hi Hello: Five decades of Pop Culture from Britain’s Broadcasting DJ Pioneer by Annie Nightingale Review by Liz Dexter Nightingale was the first female DJ on Radio One, having been a journalist and live TV presenter before then and…
December 9, 2021 The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky, A Crime and Its Punishment by Kevin Birmingham Review by Karen Langley The bicentenary of the birth of Fyodor Dostoevsky has seen a flurry of books about the man and his work….
December 2, 2021 Her Diaries and Notebooks, by Patricia Highsmith, edited by Anna von Planta Review by Basil Ransome-Davies What a prodigious event this book is. Highsmith was an assiduous note-keeper and diarist. The calendar spread is 1941-1995. The…
November 4, 2021 George V: Never a Dull Moment, by Jane Ridley Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long A few years ago I read Jane Ridley’s biography of Edward VII, which I found a fascinating, fully rounded portrayal…
October 12, 2021 Golem Girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer Reviewed by Rebecca Foster In February, the inaugural Barbellion Prize was awarded to Golem Girl, visual artist Riva Lehrer’s account of growing up with…
October 12, 2021 Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, by Simon Sebag Montefiore Review by Basil Ransome Davies In Young Stalin the author studied his subject’s early career under the microscope. In this epic volume he expands…
October 5, 2021 The Right Sort of Girl by Anita Rani Review by Liz Dexter How on earth did I get to where I am today? This is no overnight success story, this is not…
September 28, 2021 Two nature memoirs set in the New Forest: Goshawk Summer by James Aldred & The Circling Sky by Neil Ansell By Rebecca Foster Two recent memoirs have shone a spotlight on the fauna and management strategies of the New Forest, a place my Hampshire-raised…
