May 26, 2020 Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils by David Farrier Review by Peter Reason In 2013, a spring storm uncovered, on the shores of Norfolk, the oldest traces of humanity discovered outside Africa: fossil…
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 21, 2020 Well-kept Secrets: The Story of William Wordsworth by Andrew Wordsworth Reviewed by Harriet As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wordsworth, one of England’s most celebrated…
May 21, 2020 Rendang by Will Harris Review by Anna Hollingsworth Will Harris has been described as one of the most important young poets in the UK, and his debut collection…
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,…
May 16, 2020 A Shiny Rebuild Update By Annabel Just under a month ago, we experienced an absolute ‘dis-ah-ster’ (as Craig Revel Horwood would say) at Shiny – which just goes…
May 14, 2020 The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Evie Wyld’s third novel has the most stunning opening I’ve encountered in a long time. In under a page and…
May 14, 2020 How It Was by Janet Ellis Paperback review by Annabel I had been reading and loving the late Clive James’ last book, an anthology of his writing on Philip Larkin…
May 12, 2020 On the origins of ‘Pomeranski’, by Gerald Jacobs Today we are delighted to be taking part in a short blog tour for the novel ‘Pomeranski’ by Gerald Jacobs, just published by Quartet…
May 12, 2020 Oats in the North Wheat from the South by Regula Ysewijn Review by Hayley Anderton I know it’s not the easiest time to get baking supplies, or books, or enough exercise to work off the…
May 7, 2020 Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler Review by Ann Maybe as much as twenty years ago I remember a librarian colleague at the University where I was then working saying…
May 7, 2020 The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting Translated by Deborah Dawkin Review by Harriet Lars Mytting, a Norwegian author, has had great acclaim for his two previous books – the non-fiction…
May 5, 2020 The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley Review by Annabel Natasha Pulley’s 2015 debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, which I reviewed for Shiny here, is still one of the…
May 5, 2020 You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce Review by Hayley Anderton You Let Me In is Camilla Bruce’s debut novel, and it marks her out as an author to watch. It…
April 30, 2020 Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights by Helen Lewis Review by Liz Dexter First of all a caveat, in case any keen-eyed reader finds my name in the acknowledgements: I did work on…
April 30, 2020 Puzzles, constraints and cryptograms: An Oulipo beginner’s primer By Karen Langley Although you may never have heard the name of the literary group Oulipo, there’s a good chance you might actually have…
April 28, 2020 Apeirogon by Colum McCann Review by Anna Hollingsworth The most exhilarating reviews to write are those where you can bring a book down, even if it’s just a…
April 28, 2020 Actress by Anne Enright Reviewed by Harriet Why have I never read Anne Enright before? I’m always interested in Booker prize winners (she won for The Gathering in…
April 23, 2020 ‘Not’ the Wellcome Prize Blog Tour 2020 #2 – Galileo’s Error by Philip Goff The Wellcome Book Prize is on hiatus this year – we really hope it’ll return in 2021 as this unique prize, which celebrates literature…
April 23, 2020 ‘Not’ the Wellcome Prize Blog Tour 2020 #1 – Vagina A Re-Education by Lynn Enright The Wellcome Book Prize is on hiatus this year – we really hope it’ll return in 2021 as this unique prize, which celebrates literature…
April 21, 2020 Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works by David Crystal Review by Liz Dexter “What makes a successful conversation?” is a question David Crystal considers asking people in his new book – and, well,…
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 16, 2020 A Long Way Off by Pascal Garnier Translated by Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel For the past eight years, Gallic Books have been translating and publishing the gloriously black-humored noir novellas…
April 16, 2020 Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild by Lucy Jones Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Back in early March, just before literary events started being cancelled due to coronavirus, I had the good fortune to…
April 14, 2020 The Birds They Sang: Birds and People in Life and Art by Stanisław Łubieński Translated from Polish by Bill Johnston Review by Peter Reason Stanisław Łubieński first began observing birds in childhood through Soviet binoculars. Later, he took…
