The Olive Oil Diet by Dr Simon Poole and Judy Ridgway
Reviewed by Harriet When I was a small child my mother, who spent a lot of time in France and loved French cooking, used to have to go to the…
The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney
Reviewed by Harriet Who is JP Delaney? All that is known at the time of writing this review is that the pseudonym conceals the identity of ‘a writer who has…
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
Reviewed by Harriet All along, from the beginning of his conscious life, the persistent feeling that the forks and parallels of the roads taken and not taken were all being…
The Novel of the Century – The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables by David Bellos
Review by Annabel Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is 150 years old in 2017, and doubtless there will be much attention paid them including this book by David Bellos, renowned professor…
Death Going Down by María Angélica Bosco
Translated by Lucy Greaves Reviewed by Gill Davies Thanks to Shiny – and the publishers – I am discovering and enjoying new crime writers. The latest one is the Argentine…
Simple by Diana Henry and Gather by Gill Meller
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton A tale of two cookbooks: Simple and Gather The nights are now longer than the days, the quinces on the tree across the road have turned…
A Different Sea – Claudio Magris
Translated from the Italian by M. S. Spurr Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is a book that really needs an introduction, or even an afterword, unfortunately it doesn’t have one….
Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries, ed. Martin Edwards
Reviewed by Harriet The British Library Crime Classics editions started a successful trend in 2014 with their publication of J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White, which became a runaway best-seller….
The Eds Discuss… Three Years of Shiny
What’s been the main takeaway for you from these three years? Victoria: Two main things, the first has been the friendships I’ve made with the other eds. We’ve been a great…
Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is an actual book! Thank you to the nice people at Furrowed Middlebrow/ Dean Street Press who listened to my plea that as a 21st…
Evenfield by Rachel Ferguson
Review by Simon The launch of the Furrowed Middlebrow series from Dean Street Press, under the editorial eye of blogger and middlebrow expert Scott of Furrowed Middlebrow, is an occasion…
William and Dorothy Wordsworth: All in Each Other by Lucy Newlyn
Reviewed by Harriet She who dwells with me, with whom I’ve livedWith such communion, that no place on earthCan ever seem a solitude to me. So wrote William Wordsworth in…
Q&A with Stef Penney
Questions by Annabel Annabel: This has been a vintage year for me reading books about the frozen white stuff – I’ve read so many, both fiction and non-fiction, but your…
Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney
Review by Annabel This year is becoming a vintage one for historical novels set in Arctic or icy northern climes: To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey,…
Human Acts by Han Kang
Translated by Deborah Smith Paperback review by David Hebblethwaite When you shake off the hundred-plus books of a year’s reading and find that the one that clings the longest is…
Terms and Conditions by Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Review by Simon Slightly Foxed are beloved for their reprints of memoirs from across the twentieth century, but they also have published a handful of new books – most of…
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
Review by Annabel Herron is one of my favourite author discoveries of recent years. Real Tigers is the third of Mick Herron’s ‘Jackson Lamb’ series of spy novels, following Slow Horses and Dead…
The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor by Elizabeth Norton
Reviewed by Laura Marriott The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor concerns itself with the potential marriage between the teenage Elizabeth Tudor and Thomas Seymour. The book focuses primarily on Seymour, his story…
The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré
Reviewed by Rob Spence The very name seems mysterious: perhaps a whiff of the matinée idol about it, speaking of a glamorous and wealthy background. And although, like many a…
New Grub Street by George Gissing
Reviewed by Karen Langley I suppose I’m not alone amongst readers and book bloggers in having a rather romantic view of the author, picturing them sitting in a beautiful study,…
Fairy tales: A Reading List
Selected by Helen Parry Christmas is traditionally a time of magic. Even if you’re no longer quite certain that Father C pops down the chimney with a sackful of toys…
The History of a Town by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
Translated by I.P. Foote Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian literature has long had a tradition of satire stretching all the way back to Gogol, one of its best exponents. However,…
Footprints in Spain by Simon Courtauld
Reviewed by Liz Dexter Written by someone who is obviously an expert on and traveller in Spain, this interesting book takes a look at the lives of British people –…
Learning from Baby P by Sharon Shoesmith
Reviewed by Anne Goodwin A civilised society must put structures in place to protect the vulnerable. When the vulnerable are children at risk from the actions or inactions of their…