October 19, 2021 Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian Review by Liz Dexter “For Japan’s lotus blossom, praying mantis and bear, we have bramble, wood louse and urban fox” Lev Parikian, a writer,…
October 19, 2021 April in Spain by John Banville Reviewed by Harriet Almost exactly a year ago, I reviewed John Banville’s Snow [here], an immensely enjoyable country house murder mystery. I particularly liked…
October 14, 2021 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Reviewed by Harriet ‘Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked’. So we are introduced to the leading character in Colson…
October 14, 2021 Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka Review by Anna Hollingworth “Literary lion” is one descriptor attached to Wole Soyinka. For one, there’s a mane-like quality to his hair, a kind…
October 12, 2021 Golem Girl: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer Reviewed by Rebecca Foster In February, the inaugural Barbellion Prize was awarded to Golem Girl, visual artist Riva Lehrer’s account of growing up with…
October 12, 2021 Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, by Simon Sebag Montefiore Review by Basil Ransome Davies In Young Stalin the author studied his subject’s early career under the microscope. In this epic volume he expands…
October 7, 2021 The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir Translated by Lauren Elkin Review by Karen Langley Simone de Beauvoir is probably best recognised nowadays for her ground-breaking feminist work The Second Sex,…
October 7, 2021 Five fascinating facts about fictional asylums By Anne Goodwin In my professional life as a clinical psychologist, I visited around a dozen of the hundred or so long-stay psychiatric hospitals…
October 5, 2021 The Story of the Country House by Clive Aslet Reviewed by Harriet My definition of the country house is this: a work of domestic architecture in a rural location, surrounded by its own…
October 5, 2021 The Right Sort of Girl by Anita Rani Review by Liz Dexter How on earth did I get to where I am today? This is no overnight success story, this is not…
September 30, 2021 The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye By Liz Dexter This book is primarily concerned with explaining how society, as it is currently arranged, often makes trans people’s lives unnecessarily difficult….
September 30, 2021 Madgermanes by Birgit Weyhe Translated by Katy Derbyshire Review by Annabel It’s been exciting to see the variety of German books in translation coming from V&Q Books who…
September 28, 2021 Two nature memoirs set in the New Forest: Goshawk Summer by James Aldred & The Circling Sky by Neil Ansell By Rebecca Foster Two recent memoirs have shone a spotlight on the fauna and management strategies of the New Forest, a place my Hampshire-raised…
September 28, 2021 The Lifeline by Hugo Charteris By Rob Spence If you are, as I am, a child of the fifties, then one of your first televisual memories will be of…
September 23, 2021 Mary Magdalene by Adriana Valerio Translated by Wendy Wheatley Reviewed by Harriet Adriana Valerio is an Italian historian and theologian. One of the first women in Italy to be…
September 23, 2021 Star Turns by Tim Walker Review by Annabel Tim Walker’s name may ring a bell, particularly with broadsheet readers. During his career as a journalist, he has written for…
September 21, 2021 A Single Rose by Muriel Barbery Translated by Alison Anderson Review by Annabel We’re delighted to be featured in the blog tour for Muriel Barbery’s new novel today – do…
September 21, 2021 The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer Review by Hayley Anderton I’ve been reading The Black Moth along with the Georgette Heyer Readalong on Twitter, where we have very mixed feelings…
September 16, 2021 The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2018 I read and reviewed Leïla Slimani’s best-selling, Goncourt-Prize-winning novel Lullaby [here]. Soon afterwards I…
September 16, 2021 All the Names Given by Raymond Antrobus Review by Anna Hollingsworth ”your 2am text / lit / like a dog panting / on her screen / hot rattling engine / pile…
September 14, 2021 Bewilderment by Richard Powers Reviewed by Gill Davies Although he has published twelve novels since 1985, I only discovered Richard Powers through his stunning 2018 novel The Overstory…
September 14, 2021 The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars, by Simon Morden Review by Annabel Who hasn’t been enthralled by the idea of there being ‘Life on Mars’ even if said life ends up as the…
September 9, 2021 Paradise by Kae Tempest Review by Anna Hollingsworth Remember, this man is not our friend, he is our weapon. OK? So, we treat him like we treat any…
September 9, 2021 The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino Translated by Rebecca Copeland Review by Annabel Japanese author Natsuo Kirino is primarily known for her crime novels, of which Out is the most…
September 7, 2021 Your Voice Speaks Volumes: It’s Not What You Say but How You Say It, by Jane Setter Review by Liz Dexter I would like the message of this chapter to be that we should all be more tolerant of people’s voice…
