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 to prove how a little knowledge…
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 a half, it describes a six-year-old…
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 (reviewed here by Karen), when up…
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 Books. Gerald Jacobs is the literary…
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 baking that you can do, but…
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 to me, “Read Anne Tyler”. Most…
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 Norwegian Wood, a surprise bestseller about…
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 best first novels I’ve read. Set…
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 is impressively assured with a very…
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 this book in my professional capacity,…
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 read one of the members’ books….
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 tiny bit for an odd stylistic…
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 2007) and I’m a great admirer…
‘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 with health, illness and medicine themes,…
‘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 with health, illness and medicine themes,…
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, how would you answer that question?…
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 women writers: ‘a curated collection of…
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 of Pascal Garnier. Garnier, who died…
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 see Lucy Jones at Hungerford Town…
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 his hobby to a more serious…
A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
Reviewed by Harriet, 14 April 2020 In early times I was Ojinjintka, which means rose. Thomas McNulty tried very hard to say this name, but he failed, and so he…
A Bite of the Apple by Lennie Goodings
Review by Simon There’s a certain variety of person who can always spot a bottle-green spine at a hundred paces, and has faced the agonising decision about whether to shelve…
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Review by Peter Reason There has been a lot of interest recently in the idea of ‘rewilding’, expressed for example in Isabella Tree’s Wilding: The return of nature to a…
She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen: British Women in India by Katie Hickman
Reviewed by Harriet What an enticing title! Made even more so by the sub-title, ‘British Women in India’. Katie Hickman, who herself led a peripatetic life as the daughter of…