February 2, 2021 Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights, edited by Polly Russell and Margaretta Jolly Reviewed by Liz Dexter It used to be that we attended exhibitions and treated ourselves to the catalogue in the shop on the way…
December 8, 2020 The Haunting of Amelia Fielding, by Kate Summerscale Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies Believe it or not, the occult is always a source of fascination. For the persuaded, it offers an expanded view…
November 26, 2020 Work: A History of How We Spend our Time by James Suzman Reviewed by Liz Dexter I will say right away that this is probably not the book you think it will be. The subtitle suggests…
November 10, 2020 The Spirit of the Blitz – edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I thought I’d learnt to check how long a book is before I agreed or offered to review it, but…
October 15, 2020 Kitted Out: Style and Youth Culture in the Second World War by Caroline Young Reviewed by Liz Dexter This extremely well-researched and authoritative book takes us through the Second World War, in the UK, the US, the Far…
September 8, 2020 The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes Reviewed by Liz Dexter A book that is in turns entertaining, lyrical and shocking, you won’t think about the countryside – or the rivers…
September 3, 2020 King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the…
July 28, 2020 Notes From An Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell Review by Annabel O’Connell is an Irish journalist who won the Wellcome Book Prize for his previous title, To Be a Machine (which I…
June 18, 2020 Sensuous Knowledge: A black feminist approach for everyone by Minna Salami Review by Peter Reason Minna Salami is a Nigerian and Finnish social critic, founder of the MsAfropolitan blog, who draws on Africa-centric and feminist…
June 9, 2020 The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia Review by Liz Dexter The reason this book is in the news now is that it has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize…
April 30, 2020 Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis Review by Liz Dexter First of all a caveat, in case any keen-eyed reader finds my name in the acknowledgements: I did work on…
April 7, 2020 She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen: British Women in India by Katie Hickman Reviewed by Harriet What an enticing title! Made even more so by the sub-title, ‘British Women in India’. Katie Hickman, who herself led a…
February 27, 2020 Square Haunting by Francesca Wade Review by Karen Langley “Square Haunting” was published to much fanfare and acclaim recently; a book which looks at the lives of five notable…
February 5, 2020 Learning Languages in Early Modern England by John Gallagher Review by Liz Dexter Has it ever struck you that before England obtained its empire, no one else in the world bothered to speak…
December 5, 2019 Tales of the Troubled Dead: Ghost Stories in Cultural History – Catherine Belsey Review by Hayley Anderton Tales of the weird have a deep hold on our collective imagination, and of all the things we’ve given credence…
October 24, 2019 Violencia – A New History of Spain: Past, Present and the Future of the West, by Jason Webster Review by Michael Eaude. Jason Webster takes a long, long view of Spanish history. Most history books concentrate on small chunks of time: this…
August 20, 2019 Anna of Kleve – Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir Review by Julie Barham It is well known that Henry VIII had six wives – and none more mysterious than the one that he…
July 11, 2019 This Is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook Edited by: Farrell, Clare, Alison Green, Sam Knights, and William Skeaping Review by Peter Reason There cannot be many followers of Shiny New Books…
July 4, 2019 CHAOS:Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill Review by Basil Ransome-Davies In Stephen Dobyns’ murder mystery Saratoga Swimmer Charlie Bradshaw, unlicensed private eye and true-crime addict, recounts the story of New…
June 18, 2019 Birds in the Ancient World by Jeremy Mynott Review by Liz Dexter Jeremy Mynott is both a classical scholar and a writer on birds, and his love and deep knowledge of both…
May 16, 2019 Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez Review by Liz Dexter I felt a little overwhelmed facing up to reviewing this book, as there have been many reviews published since it…
January 22, 2019 The Adventures of Owen Hatherley in the Post-Soviet Space by Owen Hatherley Review by Karen Langley Author Owen Hatherley has carved out a niche for himself as one of the UK’s foremost commentators on matters architectural…
December 11, 2018 The Women’s Atlas by Joni Seager Review by Liz Dexter On the front of the book there’s a quote from Catherine Mayer, Co-Founder of the Women’s Equality Party: “The most…
December 4, 2018 Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt by Chris Naunton Reviewed by Harriet The civilisation of Ancient Egypt exerts a seemingly eternal fascination. All those pharaohs and their dynasties, stretching back to three thousand…
November 15, 2018 The Race to Save the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport Review by Karen Langley The fate of the last of the Romanov Tsars and his family has exerted a fascination over the public during…
