July 5, 2022 The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley Review by Annabel It was wonderful to discover that Natasha Pulley had a new novel published last month, I’ve been a fan since the…
June 28, 2022 The Facemaker: One Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I, by Lindsey Fitzharris Review by Annabel Lindsey Fitzharris is an American with a doctorate from Oxford in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, and a post-doc…
June 23, 2022 One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe Review by Annabel I’ve been a fan of Nina Stibbe since she first hit the literary scene in 2013 with Love, Nina, an hilarious memoir…
June 16, 2022 Good Pop, Bad Pop: An Inventory by Jarvis Cocker Review by Annabel Since he first came into the public eye, Jarvis Cocker has always presented a delightful, non-conformist approach to life – droll…
June 2, 2022 ‘Sensational Books’ at the Bodleian By Annabel On Tuesday I was privileged to be invited to join a press event for the Bodleian Libraries’ new (much-delayed by Covid) exhibition…
May 26, 2022 Elektra by Jennifer Saint Review by Annabel The current vogue for feminist retellings of stories from Greek and Roman myths and legends is showing no signs of slowing…
May 19, 2022 America Over the Water by Shirley Collins Review by Annabel Shirley Collins is widely regarded as one of the most influential British folk singers of our times. Often singing alongside her…
April 28, 2022 Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert Review by Annabel At this early stage of the year, it may be a bit forward of me to suggest that I may have…
April 26, 2022 Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Review by Annabel Sometimes the hype is true, and a publisher’s lead-title for the season really is worth the advance praise heaped on it….
April 19, 2022 The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston Review by Annabel I’m always interested in adding new Nordic authors to my reading list, which is…
April 14, 2022 The Gift of a Radio by Justin Webb Review by Annabel The TV news came on and a lugubrious looking chap in a light-coloured suit with a deep, plummy voice said something…
April 12, 2022 Brainspotting: Adventures in Neurology by A. J. Lees Reviewed by Annabel Dr Andrew Lees is a neurology professor at the National Hospital in London the first English hospital dedicated exclusively to treating…
March 29, 2022 Whatever Gets You Through the Night by Charlie Higson Review by Annabel Back in the 1990s, Higson wrote four thrillers for adults, they were dark, nasty and funny. But after them he got…
March 22, 2022 Mother Mother by Annie Macmanus Review by Annabel You may know Annie Macmanus as ‘Annie Mac’, the fomer Radio 1 DJ. She left the station last year to pursue…
March 3, 2022 The Science of Life and Death in Frankenstein by Sharon Ruston Review by Annabel Gaskell Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, her novel conceived during that momentous trip to Geneva in 1816 during ‘the year without a summer’,…
January 25, 2022 Ariadne by Jennifer Saint Review by Annabel Over recent years, I have been much enjoying the current vogue for the retelling of ancient myths and ancient history, especially…
November 30, 2021 Are We Having Fun Yet? By Lucy Mangan Review by Annabel Those of you who’ve read journalist and author Lucy Mangan’s ‘memoir of childhood reading’, Bookworm, (which Liz reviewed here) will rejoice…
October 26, 2021 Raising Laughter: How the Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling in the ‘70s by Robert Sellers Review by Annabel I watched an awful lot of telly in the 1970s, my formative teenage years. It was thus inevitable that between the…
October 21, 2021 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles Review by Annabel Amor Towles’s first novel, Rules of Civility, was published in 2011 when he was in his mid-forties. It was such a…
September 30, 2021 Madgermanes by Birgit Weyhe Translated by Katy Derbyshire Review by Annabel It’s been exciting to see the variety of German books in translation coming from V&Q Books who…
September 23, 2021 Star Turns by Tim Walker Review by Annabel Tim Walker’s name may ring a bell, particularly with broadsheet readers. During his career as a journalist, he has written for…
September 14, 2021 The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars, by Simon Morden Review by Annabel Who hasn’t been enthralled by the idea of there being ‘Life on Mars’ even if said life ends up as the…
September 9, 2021 The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino Translated by Rebecca Copeland Review by Annabel Japanese author Natsuo Kirino is primarily known for her crime novels, of which Out is the most…
August 5, 2021 Line by Niall Bourke Reviewed by Annabel If I searched, I could probably fill a small shelf full of novels that have a sub-niche of their own that…
July 22, 2021 Everyone Is Still Alive by Cathy Rentzenbrink Reviewed by Annabel You may know Cathy Rentzenbrink through her heart-breaking memoir published a few years ago. In The Last Act of Love, she…
