The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle (YA)
Reviewed by Bookgazing Every October, Cara’s family is beset by accidents big and small. The family all refer to this month as ‘the accident season’ and try to take extra…
Alfred Hitchcock by Peter Ackroyd
Reviewed by Victoria Rear Window is my all-time favourite film and I must have watched it a dozen times or more. I never seem to tire of the spiky relationship between…
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (YA)
Reviewed by Ana Grilo “Have you read Frances Hardinge?” I’ve made several false starts with this review because I don’t know what to write. How do I describe The Lie Tree?…
The Infidel Stain by M J Carter
Reviewed by Gill Davies The Infidel Stain is the second novel by M J Carter featuring the unusual detective duo of Jeremiah Blake and Captain William Avery. In the first novel, The…
The Festival of Insignificance by Milan Kundera
Reviewed by Simon Kundera’s latest – and, so it seems in discussion of the novel, potentially last – novel was published last year in French, and has now been translated…
Truly Criminal: A Crime Writers’ Association Anthology of True Crime, ed. Martin Edwards
Reviewed by Lyn Baines True crime is a genre that fascinates many readers. Whether it’s a famous unsolved case such as Jack the Ripper or a case where there’s a…
Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske by Julia Blackburn
Reviewed by Victoria It was from a friend that Julia Blackburn first heard about John Craske, a Norfolk fisherman who became a painter and an embroiderer when ill health made…
The IFFP Ceremony: A Report from the Shadow Jury
Text by David Hebblethwaite The Florence Hall at the London headquarters of RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects) is a suitably grand space for awarding a literary prize, and…
Glimpses of Long-Past Summers: Four Vintage Canadian Authors to Explore
By Barb Scharf High summer in Canada brings long days of blue skies and sunshine, with blazing hot afternoons and late warm evenings and all around the vibrant growth of…
The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys
Reviewed by Danielle Helen Humphreys writes some of the most lyrical prose I have come across. I’m slowly reading my way through her work, some of it read in pre-blogging…
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua
Reviewed by Peter Hobson Punchycards! [1] If that word brings a smile of recognition to your lips then almost certainly you will not need to read my review any further…
Seacrow Island, and Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess If you’ve been lucky enough to spend summers as a child in a special place, you know that they carry a most particular magic. The…
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Believe the hype from America, where Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel was released in March: this is sure to be one of the books of the year,…
The Dying Season by Martin Walker
Reviewed by Linda Boa Ahh! Just look at that cover of a beautiful French country town in the sunset; small enough so everyone knows everyone else who matters. That’s where…
Jellyfish by Janice Galloway
Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Janice Galloway’s new short story collection takes as its starting point an observation by David Lodge: “Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about…
The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
Reviewed by Victoria Hands up who remembers Jeremy Bamber, the White House Farm murderer? This was back in 1985, when I was 16 and the case made a notable impact…
Inside the Head of Bruno Schulz by Maxim Biller
Translated by Anthea Bell Reviewed by Karen Langley Polish-Jewish author and artist Bruno Schulz lived a short and strange life, culminating in a tragic and pointless death at the hands…
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Reviewed by Victoria Everyone must have a perfect book, and The Enchanted April is mine. Although it was first published way back in 1922, it remains as charming and funny and altogether…
The Shiny Book Club – The Paying Guests – Now let’s discuss…
Introduced by Simon Get ready for the second round of The Shiny Book Club! For this issue (though the discussion will take place in our Extra Shiny issue in about…
Peking Picnic by Ann Bridge
Reviewed by Claire Hayes From its opening sentence, Peking Picnic evokes an exquisite sense of time and place – or rather of two places. For Laura Leroy, wife of a British attaché…
On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks
Reviewed by Simon Oliver Sacks’ works are pretty much the only non-fiction books I read that aren’t about literature; for over thirty years he has been writing accessible books about…
Instrumental by James Rhodes
Reviewed by Annabel It’s hard to know where to start in writing about this memoir. I could be glib and say it’s about the healing power of classical music, which…
In Development – Books into Films: A Summer 2015 Reading List
By Diana Cheng In recent months, several actresses at different occasions had spoken out about the lack of female lead characters in movies. Seeing the dearth of significant female roles, actress Reese…
The Artificial Anatomy of Parks by Kat Gordon
Reviewed by Victoria It’s been ages since I read a good, old-fashioned family story, and although Kat Gordon’s debut novel wears the veneer of contemporary culture, set partly in a…