Paradise by A.L. Kennedy
Reviewed by Julie Barham It is probably a good thing to sometimes read outside our comfort zone. For me, Paradise was such a book. It is a reprint, though originally published as…
Greengates by R.C. Sheriff
Reviewed by Anna Barber There’s often a moment in the middle of reading a reprint when you wonder how a story like this could ever have been forgotten. Perhaps the…
Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
Reviewed by Kirsty Doole Despite being a proud Scot and committed bookworm, there are an embarrassing number of great Scottish novels that I am yet to read. Vintage Classics have…
More by Max Beerbohm
Reviewed by Simon Max Beerbohm’s name is known today, if at all, as the author of Zuleika Dobson – a curious sort of modernised Greek myth, where a preternaturally beautiful woman bewitches…
The Prank: The Best of Young Chekhov, by Anton Chekhov
Translated by Maria Bloshteyn Reviewed by Karen Langley The art of the short story is a difficult one, and many authors never attain the dizzy heights of a tale told…
The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janet Galloway
Reviewed by Julie Barham If a picture of mind numbing grief was to be fictionalised, this is the novel to read. This is a reprint in the Scottish Classic Vintage…
Thirteen Guests by J Jefferson Farjeon
Reviewed by Harriet Every station has its special voice. Some are of grit. Some are of sand. Some are of milk cans. Some are of rock muffled by tunnel smoke….
The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Stories, by Joan Aiken
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess For over sixty years – starting about age sixteen and continuing right up until her death in 2004 – storyteller extraordinaire Joan Aiken wrote tales…
Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson
Reviewed by Simon This is the third Shiny New Books issue in which I’ve had the privilege of writing about Shirley Jackson’s works – and, indeed, I’ve bolstered out those…
The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury
Reviewed by Annabel Tom Drury is the author of a trio of exquisite observational dramas following the everyday life of the inhabitants of Grouse County, Iowa, a location which epitomises…
London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes
Reviewed by Simon There are plenty of books about World War Two. There are even plenty of diaries, and some – like Nella Last’s or Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg’s – are exceptionally good. But these sorts…
Seacrow Island, and Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess If you’ve been lucky enough to spend summers as a child in a special place, you know that they carry a most particular magic. The…
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Reviewed by Victoria Everyone must have a perfect book, and The Enchanted April is mine. Although it was first published way back in 1922, it remains as charming and funny and altogether…
Peking Picnic by Ann Bridge
Reviewed by Claire Hayes From its opening sentence, Peking Picnic evokes an exquisite sense of time and place – or rather of two places. For Laura Leroy, wife of a British attaché…
Death of Anton by Alan Melville
Having really loved Alan Melville’s Quick Curtain, it didn’t take much to convince me that I wanted to try another of his detective novels, also published in the British Library Crime…
Vain Shadow by Jane Hervey
Reviewed by Anna Barber Now they would be able to afford a big house, a swimming pool, maids, a car….“I hope he didn’t have any pain,” she said. In Vain Shadow,…
The Studio Crime by Ianthe Jerrold
Reviewed by Harriet Published in 1929, this is the first of only two crime novels written by Ianthe Jerrold. The descendent of a celebrated literary family, she became a member…
Riders by Jilly Cooper
Reviewed by Annabel Can you believe that it is thirty years since Jilly Cooper introduced us to Rutshire and her best-selling doorstop of sex and showjumping? Her publishers, Corgi, have…
Life Among the Savages & Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Reviewed by Simon I already knew that I loved Shirley Jackson – I did from the time I was about a chapter into We Have Always Lived in the Castle back in…
Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards
Reviewed by Harriet Vintage crime fiction is enjoying a tremendous renaissance at the moment, and the British Library Crime Classics series certainly has a good deal to do with it….
Waverley by Walter Scott
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Waverley has been on my ‘ought to read’ list for longer than I care to remember, so when Shiny New Books asked me to read a new…
Sylvia by Leonard Michaels
Reviewed by Karen Langley The blurring of the lines between fiction and fact is an artistic trope which is very much in vogue in current writing. Novels abound featuring real…
Quick Curtain by Alan Melville
Reviewed by Simon Shiny New Books has been a consistent and delighted fan of the British Library Crime Classics series, which has been rather a phenomenon in the publishing industry…
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Reviewed by Jane Carter I have a very clear memory of visiting a bookshop, a good few years ago. I had a birthday book token, and I wasn’t too sure…