The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader
Review by Eleanor Franzén Imagine: you’re a woman in England in 1255. With a little bit of flexibility, depending on your father’s annual income, you have two life choices. One is…
Creatures of a Day and Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom
Reviewed by Victoria I am a huge fan of shrink lit, the small genre of books that feature psychotherapy, because they almost invariably explore and unpack some of the most…
From Z to A, how Zweig inspired Anderson’s ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
By Diana Cheng The Grand Budapest Hotel won four Oscars at the 87th Academy Awards this February. At the end of the film, leading the credits, is the acknowledgement of Stefan Zweig…
The Man in a Hurry by Paul Morand
Translated by Euan Cameron Reviewed by Karen Langley The modern world is very much based on speed, with gadgets and technology conspiring to deliver all kinds of information and media…
Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane
Translated by Mike Mitchell Reviewed by Harriet The great German novelist Thomas Mann (1875-1955) apparently said that if you had to reduce your library to six novels, Effi Briest should…
Basil Street Blues by Michael Holroyd
Reviewed by Simon It takes a certain sort of bravado to assume that your family will be interesting to people who don’t know you. Not just your family in connection…
On Writing ‘Three Strange Angels’
By Laura Kalpakian I often think of the novel, any novel, really, as a small boat, initially moored to a certain well known shore, an incident, say, the writer’s own…
Three Strange Angels by Laura Kalpakian
Reviewed by Victoria. Quentin Castle, lanky, short-sighted and newly-married, has recently been promoted to junior partner at his father’s literary agency. Everyone knows this is nepotism, especially his father’s other…
A Bird in the Hand by Diana Henry
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Chicken recipes for every day and every mood. Chicken is hard to avoid these days. When I was a child it was a once a week…
Shiny New Author: Cecilia Ekbäck
Interviewed by Harriet H: Cecilia, we learn from your website that you spent twenty years in marketing after leaving university. Did you always harbour the ambition to be a writer,…
Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck
Reviewed by Harriet Cecilia Ekbäck’s impressive debut novel has been described as Nordic noir, but I think that’s a bit too neat a pigeonhole. Nordic it certainly is, being set…
Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure by Cédric Villani
Translated by Malcolm De Bevoise Review by Annabel It is a well-known fact that Stephen Hawking was persuaded to remove all the equations bar the single famous one, E =…
The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts
Reviewed by Simon It is probably no longer news to you that the British Library are reprinting a series of Crime Classics; some of their choices have hit the bestseller…
Mercy Seat by Wayne Price
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Mercy Seat is a beautifully stirring novel, set in a remote seaside town in west Wales. Luke, our protagonist and narrator, is an aimless young man on…
Fire Flowers by Ben Byrne
Reviewed by Annabel. The publisher Europa Editions is primarily known in the UK for bringing translated fiction, mainly from Europe, to English-speaking readers. However, eight months ago they signed their…
Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy
Reviewed by Denise Kong Don’t Let Him Know is a multi-stranded tale, whose protagonists struggle to find their social, sexual and familial identities against the cultural backdrops of India and USA….
Books for Spring: A Reading List
Selected by Danielle Simpson The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Any list of spring reading surely must begin with Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. It begins one dreary April day in…
The Book of Margery Kempe
Translated by Anthony Bale Reviewed by Harriet Margery Kempe (c.1373-after 1439) was an extraordinary woman, and this is an extraordinary book. It’s often referred to as the first autobiography to…
The Youngest Lady in Waiting by Mara Kay
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long In Mara Kay’s first book, Masha, we followed the adventures of Masha Fredericks as she travelled to St Petersburg from her home in the country to attend…
Reading in Translation
By Jean Morris The right words will come to me, because I am now translating from the heart, not from the head.Maureen Freely One of my favourite reviewers remarked a…
A War of Flowers by Jane Thynne
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long This is the third in a series of books featuring Clara Vine, a film actress in pre-war Berlin. If you have not read the earlier titles Black…
The Well by Catherine Chanter
Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén Speculative fiction often works best when it takes one element of our everyday lives and tweaks it, showing us how much we rely on a certain…
Interview with Jane Thynne on her Clara Vine Novels
Interview by Annabel A: Firstly, congratulations on A War of Flowers! It took the life and career of Clara Vine (Anglo-German film actress and British spy) to new and ever more thrilling…
Portrait Inside My Head by Phillip Lopate
Reviewed by Victoria Readers may recognise Phillip Lopate’s name from the anthologies of American essay writing for which he is the editor, though in fact he is a prolific essay…