The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a famous and fascinating book, and I think anyone interested in the Great War, or the wider question of how wars begin, would find…
Wilfred and Eileen by Jonathan Smith
Reviewed by Rachel Fenn Wilfred and Eileen, one of Persephone’s new books for the Spring, is also one of their most modern, having been first published in the 1970s. It…
Murder Underground and Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
Reviewed by Harriet Devine Mavis Doriel Hay (1894-1979) wrote only three crime novels, all published in the 1930s. They slipped completely under the radar until the British Library decided to…
A trio of Maigret novels by Georges Simenon
Reviewed by Lizzy Siddal Let me start this article with a confession. In my pre-blog years, I once read a Maigret novel. I didn’t like it much. I found it…
Mistress Masham’s Repose by T. H. White
Reviewed by Jodie Robson “It was a glorious day in June – for that matter it was the Glorious First of June – and the sun was resounding on the…
During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase
Reviewed by Danielle Simpson Quite often the best reading experiences I have, or at least the most memorable ones, are stories that are in some way challenging or difficult. This…
Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope
Reviewed by Harriet Devine No author of the present day has been at once so much read, so much admired and so much abused. So wrote the New Monthly Review…
The Conquest of Plassans by Émile Zola
Translated by Helen Constantine Reviewed by Harriet Devine In issue 1 of SNB, I reviewed Zola’s Money, and Victoria wrote a fascinating article about his “racy, sordid books” for the BookBuzz section. Money was the…
City of Endless Night by Milo M. Hastings
Reviewed by Simon Thomas My heart would normally sink at any blurb which began ‘The year is 2151.’ I am perfectly willing to concede that the fault is with me…
Don’t Point That Thing At Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Don’t Point That Thing At Me was originally published in 1972, and is the first in a trilogy of novels featuring The Hon. Charlie Mortdecai; a fourth…
August Folly, Summer Half and The Brandons by Angela Thirkell
Reviewed by Claire/The Captive Reader When I started blogging in early 2010, I had never heard of Angela Thirkell. Then, slowly, I started hearing whispers. A casual reference here and…
Discovering Mary Hocking In The Back Of Another Book
Written by Ali Hope There is probably no greater joy for a book lover than to discover a new author. I found Mary Hocking nearly three years ago, in the…
The ‘Fairley Family Trilogy’ by Mary Hocking
Reviewed by Ali Hope The Fairley family trilogy by Mary Hocking has remained among her most popular novels. They were among a small number of Hockings published by Virago in…
The Runaways by Elizabeth Goudge
Reviewed by Rachel Fenn Hesperus Press, known for their very attractive reprints of minor works by major authors, has recently launched a new arm of their business called Hesperus Minor,…
The Cornish Coast Murder and The Lake District Murder by John Bude
Reviewed by Harriet Devine ‘That’s just where I must part company with you, Inspector’, said the Vicar with a gentle smile. ‘I’m rather a voracious reader of mystery stories, and…
Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark
Reviewed by Simon Thomas The vagaries of reputation are curious. If you ask a hundred people to name a novel by Muriel Spark, then most – well, most might cross…
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
Reviewed by Jodie One of the children’s classics I didn’t read when I was a child was Pollyanna. It had been described to me as a story about a pious little girl who…
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
Review by Simon Thomas I toyed with trying to write this entire review of Miss Lonelyhearts (originally published in 1933, now reissued in a beautiful edition by Daunt Books) without giving the…
I Was A Stranger by John Hackett
Reviewed by Simon Thomas In a year where we almost certainly going to be inundated with books about World War One, it seems a little perverse to be publishing a…
Hangsaman, The Bird’s Nest, and The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
Reviewed by Simon Thomas You can more or less divide readers’ familiarity with Shirley Jackson’s works into separate levels. Of course, the broadest (particularly here in the UK) are those…
Money by Émile Zola
Translated by Valerie Minogue Reviewed by Harriet Devine ‘It’s very difficult to write a novel about money. It’s cold, icy, lacking in interest’. So said Zola in an interview in…
A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery
Reviewed by Mahathi G A Tangled Web is one of L M Montgomery’s ‘adult’ novels. As such, it is rather different from Montgomery’s usual. There is nothing really ‘adult’ about it…
Appointment with Yesterday and With No Crying by Celia Fremlin
Reviewed by Harriet Devine. Why on earth have we not heard of Celia Fremlin? Well, I certainly hadn’t until recently, and having discovered her brilliant ‘novels of domestic suspense’ through…