The Ballroom by Anna Hope
Reviewed by Judith Wilson There’s an intriguing tension between the title of Anna Jones’s second novel, The Ballroom, and its setting: a bleak mental asylum on the edge of the Yorkshire…
Reviewed by Judith Wilson There’s an intriguing tension between the title of Anna Jones’s second novel, The Ballroom, and its setting: a bleak mental asylum on the edge of the Yorkshire…
Reviewed by Harriet This is the fifth of Tracy Chevalier’s eight absorbing historical novels I’ve read, and in my view it’s the best so far. I was completely sucked in…
Translated by Jessica Moore Reviewed by Annabel It is easy to see why this novel (in this translation; Sam Taylor has translated it in the USA as The Heart) has been…
Reviewed by Peter Hobson This new book by world famous theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, subtitled “The astounding interconnectedness of the Universe”, gives the reader an excellent insight into how physicists…
By Sharlene Tan The part of the world that is known as Southeast Asia may include the fourth most populous nation in the world but ask the average person to…
Reviewed by Rob Spence 2016 is clearly going to be the year of Shakespeare, though it seems rather gruesome to ‘celebrate’ the anniversary of his death. In 1964, when the…
Reviewed by Gill Davies Behind Closed Doors is the second novel in Elizabeth Haynes’s new series featuring the Major Crime team in Briarstone. The first was Under A Silent Moon, published in…
As some of the big literary festivals kick off this year’s lit fest season, Annabel, Harriet, Simon and Victoria discuss them: The literary festival has become so omnipresent lately; are…
Reviewed by Annabel This novel was published in 1967, the fifth of twelve novels by the former ranch hand, and commonly thought to be his best. Savage, who died in…
Reviewed by Kirsty Gibson I’ve been reading my way through the British Library Crime Classics for some time now, so when Simon gave me a copy of Murder at the Manor to…
Translated by Roland Glasser Reviewed by Terence Jagger TRAM 83: BY DAY AS BY NIGHT, ETERNAL IN ITS SPLENDOUR OF A PARADISE GOING TO HELL IN A HANDCART, WITH THE…
Translated by Brian Nelson and Julie Rose Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Regular readers of my blog might remember that I set myself the task of reading through Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series…
Reviewed by Victoria Hoyle I was sold Shirley Barrett’s Rush Oh! entirely on the strength of a fellow blogger’s review. She made it sound so deliciously enchanting that I had…
Translated by Annie Prime Reviewed by Eleanor Franzen Maresi is thirteen or so. She lives in a fantastical realm on an island called Menos, under the protection of the Sisters…
Reviewed by Harriet I’m sure I’ve read Helen Dunmore before, but it must have been a long time ago as a scan of her previous titles fails to ring any…
By Thomas Otto Eighteen years ago, as an American with an inexplicable, but deep-seated Anglophilia, I picked up Anita Brookner’s novel A Friend from England (1987) based on the title alone. I’m…
Reviewed by Annabel Up until now, Meg Rosoff has primarily been known for her seven novels for teens, for which body of work she has just won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial…
Reviewed by Simon I am always unable to pass on the chance to read a Slightly Foxed Edition and, having re-loved 84, Charing Cross Road in the last issue of Shiny New…
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster The Outrun has recently been shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize, awarded annually to a work that engages with medical themes. That’s because, put simply, it’s a…
Selected by Jenny and Memory In each issue of Shiny New Books, Jenny and Memory highlight the most exciting young adult novels of the season. This spring, they’re perhaps a leetle bit…
Reviewed by Annabel I was only three when JFK was assassinated, remaining blissfully unaware of the events that etched themselves into the psyches of everyone old enough to understand what…
Questions by Victoria and Harriet Throughout her long and illustrious academic career, Janet Todd has been a pioneer in women’s writing, recovering lost and neglected authors. She has written biographies…
Reviewed by Harriet Anyone who’s studied, or taken an interest in, women writers of the 18th and 19th centuries will have encountered the work of Janet Todd. She has written biographies of…
Reviewed by Annabel When offered a review copy of Titan Books latest addition to their ongoing reprints of the Modesty Blaise cartoon strips series, I couldn’t say no, firstly as…