July 8, 2021 Broken Lights, by Basil Ramsay Anderson Reviewed by Rob Spence Years ago, I was teaching an undergraduate class on the topic of the poetry of the bard of Orkney, George…
July 2, 2021 Eustace and Hilda by L P Hartley Reviewed by Harriet Leslie Poles Hartley was forty-nine when he published his first novel, The Shrimp and the Anemone (1944). It was followed by…
June 22, 2021 The Feast by Margaret Kennedy Reviewed by Harriet Margaret Kennedy has appeared a few times before on Shiny: two of her novels in 2014 [here] and [here] and more…
June 17, 2021 Miss Browne’s Friend by F M Mayor Reviewed by Harriet Born in 1872, Flora Macdonald Mayor was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman and classics professor. Perhaps surprisingly, given her background,…
May 27, 2021 Mamma by Diana Tutton Reviewed by Harriet Published in 1956, Mamma was the first novel Tutton wrote, though her second and now better known Guard Your Daughters was…
May 21, 2021 Mr Fortune’s Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner Reviewed by Harriet It can only be good news that Penguin have been reissuing Sylvia Townsend Warner’s admirable novels. I only discovered her writing…
April 27, 2021 A Rage in Harlem and The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes Reviewed by Annabel I first discovered the mad world of Chester Himes’s Harlem in an old Allison & Busby paperback of The Crazy Kill,…
April 22, 2021 A Virtual Image by Rosalind Brackenbury Reviewed by Helen Parry Until Michael Walmer reissued her first novel, A Day to Remember to Forget, I had never heard of Rosalind Brackenbury….
April 22, 2021 There’s No Story There – Wartime Writing, 1944-1945 by Inez Holden Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is one of two recent releases from Handheld Press that cover aspects of wartime experience – in this case…
April 6, 2021 Where Stands a Wingèd Sentry by Margaret Kennedy Reviewed by Harriet If you’ve heard of, or read, Margaret Kennedy at all, it’s likely to be her 1924 novel The Constant Nymph. Written…
March 30, 2021 The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz Translated by Philip Boehm Reviewed by Gill Davies This is an important republication of a novel which first appeared eighty years ago under a…
March 30, 2021 The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji Translated by Ho-Ling Wong Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a very unusual book, and I initially disliked its artificiality – extreme, even by…
March 11, 2021 Tang: A Shetland Story by J.J. Haldane Burgess Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Northus is a new project from Michael Walmer (who’s own reprint series will be familiar to many readers here) and…
February 25, 2021 Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns Reviewed by Harriet Barbara Comyns seems to be enjoying a well-deserved renaissance at the moment. In addition to this one, just published by Daunt…
February 16, 2021 The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp Reviewed by Harriet At fifty-five, Isobel Brocken was still a nice-looking woman. She dated, of course, all her female friends said so – poor…
January 26, 2021 Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp Reviewed by Harriet Ever since I started reading book review blogs, some years ago now, I have often encountered Margery Sharp’s name, generally accompanied…
December 16, 2020 The Story of Keth by Blanche Girouard Reviewed by Rob Spence Blanche Girouard, born in 1898, was a prominent figure in the Anglo-Irish aristocracy of the early twentieth century. Her father…
December 15, 2020 Miss Mole by E H Young Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I seem to have spent most of my life rummaging around in second hand bookshops and in so doing have…
December 8, 2020 Death Goes on Skis – Nancy Spain Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Nancy Spain’s name rang a bell when I saw Virago were going to republish some of her books, but I…
November 17, 2020 Mr Fox by Barbara Comyns Reviewed by Harriet It’s exactly ten years since I discovered Barbara Comyns for the first time. Born in 1909, she had an unusual upbringing…
November 3, 2020 Women’s Weird 2: More Strange Stories by Women, 1891-1937, edited by Melissa Edmundson Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women 1890 -1940 was a standout book from last year – it’s still genuinely one…
November 3, 2020 British Weird, Selected Shorter Fiction 1893-1937 edited by James Machin Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I spent some time looking up the definition of Weird as opposed to Horror in preparation for writing this, and…
October 29, 2020 The Unbearable Bassington by Saki Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Francesca Bassington sat in the drawing room of her house in Blue Street regaling herself and her estimable brother Henry…
October 22, 2020 One Billion Years to the End of the World by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Translated by Antonina W. Bouis Reviewed by Karen Langley Science fiction writing often gets a bad press; dismissed as lightweight genre writing, mocked for…
October 13, 2020 Reviewer’s Choice: A Day to Remember to Forget by Rosalind Brackenbury While Shiny New Books concentrates on the new, we enjoyed giving some of our reviewers room to share previously published – ie: ‘not Shiny…
