Stranger than we can Imagine by John Higgs
Review by Peter Hobson Subtitled “Making Sense of the Twentieth Century”, Higgs’ book takes fifteen of what he (and I think many people) consider to be seminal concepts, paradigm shifts…
Snow by Marcus Sedgwick
Reviewed by Annabel Snow is the latest addition to small indie publisher Little Toller’s series of ‘monographs’. These smart little hardbacks are dedicated to writing ‘attuned to the natural world,’…
Sword of Bone by Anthony Rhodes
Reviewed by Simon They’ve done it again! Slightly Foxed have brought out yet another fascinating, entertaining, and well-written memoir – and another one that I would never have heard of…
Reading for Food and Drink
Written by Hayley Anderton Wine is a wonderful thing, a living, breathing, liquid that ages, changes, develops in bottle and glass. It has the capacity to be hugely disappointing (if…
The Naïve and Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk
Translated by Nazim Dikbas Reviewed by Rob Spence Orhan Pamuk, Nobel laureate, is the kind of public intellectual that we need to cherish, especially in these dark days for his…
A Shetlander’s Fair Isle Graph Book In Colour
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is the second book from the Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers. The first one was A Legacy of Shetland Lace which is a tremendous…
Polska by Zuza Zak
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton It’s no secret that I have a weakness for cookbooks, I love them, love the way that they give me a window into other worlds of…
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life, by Ed Yong
Review by Terence Jagger This is a truly fascinating book, about the complex ecosystem of microbes that lives inside us, all other animals, and sometimes each other – doing good,…
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi
Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Rose France Reviewed by Karen Langley One of my highlights from 2014 was the discovery of the writings of the…
Brensham Village by John Moore
Reviewed by Simon Brensham Village, the latest volume from the Slightly Foxed Editions series that I love so dearly, is a sort of sequel to Portrait of Elmbury, also published by…
The Voices Within by Charles Fernyhough
Reviewed by Anne Goodwin ‘Yeah, I put that in, surely!’ I laughed when I heard myself saying this the other morning as I stowed my bags in the boot of the…
Tide by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Reviewed by Terence Jagger I live close to the tidal Thames, and often walk by the sea – and have never quite understood the tides. Yes, I was taught at…
The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood
Reviewed by Harriet This gorgeous book is subtitled ‘Life in the English Country House Between the Wars’, and certainly that is part of its subject. But it’s a book with…
But What If We’re Wrong? by Chuck Klosterman
Reviewed by Simon How many non-fiction books do you come across which combine literature, music, television, sports, science, and aliens? Not that many, I’m going to wager – but, then,…
Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited by Philip Eade
Reviewed by Liz Dexter When approaching a biography of Evelyn Waugh, one can’t help but assume it’s going to be a portrait of quite a nasty man who was mean…
Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon by Damian Collins
Reviewed by Liz Dexter First of all, because this is the question everyone will ask: yes, Philip Sassoon was a distant cousin of the First World War poet, Siegfried –…
The Middlepause; On Turning Fifty by Marina Benjamin
Reviewed by Victoria When you think of all the great defining events of an ordinary life and how often they feature as the focus of a novel – growing up,…
Negroland by Margo Jefferson
Reviewed by Victoria ‘I think it’s too easy to recount unhappy memories when you write about race,’ writes Margot Jefferson, as a refrain repeated several times across the course of…
Metamorphosis; How and Why We Change by Polly Morland
Reviewed by Victoria ‘Our culture is one in which,’ Polly Morland writes, ‘more than ever before, we feel entitled to change our experiences and ourselves to fit with our dreams…
The Book of Haps edited by Kate Davies and Jen Arnall-Culliford
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I’m a little late to the party as far as the knitting revival goes, but better late than never. I grew up in Shetland at a…
The Abundance by Annie Dillard
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Annie Dillard is one of those uncategorisable writers who poke fingers into all sorts of genres. Like Adam Gopnik, Rebecca Solnit, and Geoff Dyer (who provides…
Pride And Pudding by Regula Ysewijn
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Sometimes I wonder if my cookbook habit is getting out of control, and in my darkest moments I’ll even question how many of them a person…
More Was Lost by Eleanor Perényi
Reviewed by Simon If you’re anything like me, you might be unfamiliar with the political dynamics of Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the years leading up to the Second World War….
Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey by Frances Wilson
Reviewed by Harriet The sense of space, and in the end, the sense of time, were both powerfully affected. Buildings, landscapes, &c. were exhibited in proportions so vast as the…