The Last Days of Kira Mullan by Nicci French
Reviewed by Harriet, 20 Feb 2025 The more she said that she shouldn’t be in here, the more convinced they became that she should, she must. Every time she argued…
Shiny Prize Season 2025: Dylan Thomas Award longlist – Pity by Andrew McMillan & The Coin by Yasmin Zaher
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Award has now been running since 2006. It honours young writers, so entering writers must be 39 or under (the age Dylan Thomas died). This…
Colette, My Literary Mother by Michèle Roberts
Reviewed by Victoria Best, 13 Feb 2025 Colette is, I think, a very special writer. She writes with such beguiling charm, such seductive cleverness that she gets under your skin….
Otherworld: Nine Tales of Wonder and Romance from Medieval Ireland, by Lisa M. Bitel
Review by Helen Parry A king’s son pines for a beautiful woman who only he can see. A god’s jealous wife turns a princess into a puddle of water, which…
Shiny Prize Season 2025: Nero debut fiction winner – Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
Review by Annabel When originally published early last year, this debut novel, from another up-and-coming Irish author, garnered rave reviews. It was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, although I…
The Handheld Diaries by Kate Macdonald
Reviewed by Harriet, 4 Feb 2025 Christoph says, ‘Kate, you should really set up your own publishing house.’ Many of Shiny’s regular readers will have read the wonderful books published…
Gobsmacked!: The British Invasion of American English by Ben Yagoda
Reviewed by Harriet, 30 January 2025 Smog sounds American as American as can be, and that was certainly the case when Joni Mitchell, in her song “Woodstock”, declared, “I have…
The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
Review by David Harris, 29 January 2025 Reading a review this weekend of a new TV series set in the 80s, I found myself agreeing with the writer’s point that…
May Sinclair, Nakiketas and Other Poems
Reviewed by Rob Spence, 28 January 2025 One of the most welcome developments in literary studies over recent years has been the rediscovery of works by previously neglected women writers…
Abandonment by Erminia Dell’Oro
Translated by Oonagh Stransky Review by Annabel Such is my woeful lack of knowledge of African history, I had no idea that Eritrea had been colonized by Italy in the…
The Drowned by John Banville
Reviewed by Harriet, 14 Jan 2025 When John Banville announced that he was going to give up writing the multi-award-winning literary fiction for which he had been celebrated for decades,…
Pictures on the Wall by Hugo Charteris
Review by Rob Spence, 9 Jan 2025 This book, by the strangely neglected author of a number of novels in the fifties and sixties, is another welcome publication from the…
Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers by Darren Freebury-Jones
Reviewed by Harriet, 7 Jan 2025 When I was young, I spent several summers in Stratford-upon-Avon. My parents were working at the theatre there, so I was fortunate to be…
Wishing You a Shiny and Happy Christmas!
This year, we’ve posted just over 100 reviews and articles, mostly written by our stalwart team of superb reviewers with whom we couldn’t do without. A huge Shiny thank you…
Out of the Darkness: The Germans 1942-2022 – by Frank Trentmann
Review by Liz Dexter Over the course of the last eighty years, Germany has gone through a remarkable moral and material regeneration. The two have pulled the country in opposite…
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Reviewed by Harriet Sequels can be very enticing when the initial book has done well. Readers want to know what happens to a character they’ve connected with. So says a…
Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts
Reviewed by Harriet In the year 1932, Miss Penelope Shadow published a book which instantly became a best seller. It was her fourth book and not, in her opinion, markedly…
Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway
Review by Annabel When it was announced that Nick Harkaway, one of the lateJohn Le Carré’s sons, was going to write another Smiley novel, I rubbed my hands with glee….
Mammoth by Eva Baltasar
Translated by Julia Sanches Review by Michael Eaude Ice and Fire Mammoth is the third novel in Eva Baltasar’s big-selling trilogy, each featuring young women in search of love with…
Small Things Like These: from Novella to Screen
A film review by Arti Here’s an interesting fact: Claire Keegan’s books Foster (2010) and Small Things Like These (2020), both have 128 pages. While short as standalone books, both novellas exemplify Keegan’s style…
Midnight in Vienna – Jane Thynne
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Several years ago I was sent a copy of Black Roses by this author, the first in her Clara Vine series. Clara is an Anglo-German actress…
The Unfinished Harauld Hughes by Richard Ayoade
Review by Annabel Underneath the comic, often socially awkward, character exterior of Richard Ayoade lives a real intellectual and talented writer, who puts on a clever act to fool us…
Dickens: The Funny Bits, compiled by R.J. Cruikshank
Review by Karen Langley Victorian novelist Charles Dickens is an iconic figure; known for his chunky novels, filled with vivid characters, social commentary and campaigning, he’s also occasionally dismissed because…
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Reviewed by Harriet He had spent a good two weeks being sensible and mature, and then he bought a Land Rover Defender instead. It was a rugged, blokey kind of…