June 18, 2020 The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo Translated by Yumiko Yamazaki Review by Terence Jagger This Japanese detective thriller is set in the 1940s and so is relatively ‘modern’, but only…
June 16, 2020 James and Nora: A Portrait of a Marriage by Edna O’Brien Review by Rob Spence Last year, Weidenfeld and Nicholson reissued Edna O’Brien’s 1999 biography of Joyce, an entertainingly idiosyncratic volume, which is reviewed here….
June 11, 2020 Victory For The Slain by Hugh Lofting Review by Rob Spence When we think of First World War poets, it’s safe to say that Hugh Lofting will not be the first…
May 26, 2020 Chatterton Square by E H Young Reviewed by Harriet When the British Library announced the first three titles in their new Women Writers series, I was delighted see that one…
May 19, 2020 Diary Of A Foreigner In Paris, by Curzio Malaparte Translated by Stephen Twilley Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies An adjective frequently applied to Curzio Malaparte is ‘colourful’. To the Cambridge dictionary it means ‘vivid,…
April 21, 2020 My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes Reviewed by Harriet I’m sure I’m not alone in having rejoiced when the British Library announced a new series of reprints of 20th century…
April 7, 2020 A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen by Martin Gayford and David Hockney Reviewed by Liz Dexter This is a new ‘compact’ edition of this book, with a revised final chapter bringing it all up to date,…
March 17, 2020 James Joyce by Edna O’Brien Review by Rob Spence Edna O’Brien’s position as one of the most significant modern Irish writers is undisputed, and here, in this reissue of…
February 25, 2020 Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford Reviewed by Ali Business as Usual is an early work from the formidably productive writing partnership of Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford (both pseudonyms) –…
February 20, 2020 Kallocain by Karin Boye Translated by David McDuff Review by Karen Langley Our modern world often seems to be getting very close to a dystopian nightmare, and most…
February 18, 2020 My Caravaggio Style by Doris Langley Moore Review by Simon It’s always exciting when Dean Street Press announce the next batch of novels in their Furrowed Middlebrow series, chosen by Scott…
February 13, 2020 Veronica by Veronica Lake Reviewed by Harriet I wonder how many people today have even heard of Veronica Lake. There was a time, though a relatively brief one,…
February 11, 2020 Abigail by Magda Szabo Translated by Len Rix Reviewed by Harriet This novel, by the award-winning Hungarian novelist Magda Szabo, was first published in 1970. However, it is…
February 4, 2020 Postscript to Poison & Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers Reviewed by Harriet I have a special liking for vintage crime novels and am always pleased when I discover an author previously unknown to…
January 30, 2020 Of Cats and Elfins by Sylvia Townsend Warner Reviewed by Harriet Just over a year ago I reviewed the newly published Handheld Press edition of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Kingdoms of Elfin, a…
January 23, 2020 Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem Translated by Louis Iribarne Review by Karen Langley Polish writer Stanislaw Lem was a prolific author of science fiction works, the most well known…
November 21, 2019 Tea at Four O’Clock by Janet McNeill Review by Harriet The gates of her prison were open, but she lacked the courage to go through them to whatever new country was…
September 19, 2019 The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim Introduced by Juliane Römhild, with notes by Kate Macdonald Review by Karen Langley Elizabeth von Arnim is probably best known nowadays for her novel The…
September 12, 2019 Machines in the Head: Selected Short Writing by Anna Kavan Review by Karen Langley There was quite a resurgence of interest in Anna Kavan’s writing last year with the release of not one, but…
September 12, 2019 The House Opposite by Barbara Noble Review by Elaine Simpson-Long It sounds odd to begin a book review with the statement that I do not like contemporary literature. I never…
August 22, 2019 The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun by Sébastien Japrisot Translated by Helen Weaver Review by Annabel I had never heard of Sébastien Japrisot before reading this book, and afterwards, I wasn’t surprised to…
July 11, 2019 A Stranger in my Grave by Margaret Millar Reviewed by Harriet Margaret Millar, born in Canada in 1915, lived for most of her life in California with her husband Ken, who wrote…
June 11, 2019 Death in Captivity – Michael Gilbert Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I’ve enjoyed more or less everything I’ve read in the British Library Crime Classics series (everything has had something to…
May 23, 2019 Berg by Ann Quin Review by Helen Parry Until a couple of months ago, I had never heard of Ann Quin. However, I then read that the independent…
April 30, 2019 The Strange Case of Harriet Hall by Moray Dalton Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long More and more unknown or unfamiliar writers of the Golden Age of detective fiction are being unearthed and reprinted and…
