Armchair Nation by Joe Moran
Reviewed by Annabel. I’m a big fan of television having been an enthusiastic watcher for all of my life, from The Woodentops to Blue Peter as a young child, The…
Chinaski by Frances Vick
Reviewed by Annabel. A novel about a British Rock Band in the 1990s with a grainy image of a Marshall amplifier on its front cover is bound to grab the…
I Was Here by Gayle Forman (YA)
Reviewed by Annabel When I read Gayle Forman’s debut novel If I Stay back in 2009, the juggernaut that is today’s YA book industry was in its relative infancy. Being in my…
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Reviewed by Annabel A new publication from Nick Hornby is always something I look forward to, be it a new volume of his positive book reviews from The Believer magazine or,…
Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss (YA)
Paperback review by Annabel This debut novel was one of the big YA hits in the UK last year and is now out in paperback. An exploration of family, friendship…
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
Reviewed by Annabel Marcus Sedgwick is one of my favourite authors, one of the few whose new YA and adult novels I will buy automatically. He has won several prizes…
The Islanders by Pascal Garnier
Translated by Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel I am a recent convert to the dark noir novels of French author Pascal Garnier. There has been a lot of interest around…
Playing to the Gallery by Grayson Perry
Reviewed by Annabel Grayson Perry CBE RA, the Turner Prize-winning transvestite potter, is becoming a national treasure – so much so, that the BBC invited him to give their annual…
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
Review by Annabel I always find accounts of lives worked in medicine absolutely fascinating, especially those of surgeons, who live on the cutting edge (sorry!) of medical science. It takes…
Desperate Games by Pierre Boulle
Translated by David Carter Review by Annabel Gaskell While Desperate Games is not a great work of literature, it is a book that is BIG on ideas. This philosophical satire on science,…
The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett
Reviewed by Annabel Neil Bartlett came to my attention a few years ago when I read his decidedly tense 2008 novel Skin Lane set in London’s fur trade during the…
Parfums by Philippe Claudel
Translated by Euan Cameron Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Those unfamiliar with Claudel may have heard of him in association with the BAFTA-winning French film I’ve Loved You So Long, which starred…
Spotlight on Publishers: Unbound
Is crowd-funding the future of publishing? Annabel talks to Unbound… Before we get into our chat fully, could you explain briefly for those readers who don’t know you, how Unbound…
The Children Act by Ian McEwan
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell Back in March, I went to hear McEwan talk at the Oxford Literary Festival. He read a couple of passages from the final draft of his…
Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell A few years ago there was a reality show series on children’s telly in the UK called Project Parent, in which kids from single parent families…
The Head of the Saint by Socorro Acioli
Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn Reviewed by Annabel In my experience, there aren’t many novels for children and young adults around in English translation, although I was pleased…
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell. Interest in the great magician and escapologist Harry Houdini seems to be undergoing a revival lately. Christopher Sandford wrote a book about the feud between Houdini…
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell This book may have shocking pink endpapers, but between them is the most elegant novel of speculative fiction that I’ve read in a long time –…
Tigerman by Nick Harkaway
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell At the time of writing, I have the pleasure of telling you that Tigerman, with its stunning cover artwork, is the best novel I’ve read this year. My…
The Way Inn by Will Wiles
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell “You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.” Never has a quotation been as appropriate to a book as that above…
Five Fascinating Facts About… Robert Aickman
Winkled out by Annabel Gaskell 1. Although we’ve come to know Aickman as an author, he was a prominent conservationist. In 1946, he was a co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association….
The Strange Stories of Robert Aickman
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell 2014 marks the centenary of the birth of Robert Aickman, an author who once encountered demands that you read more of his output – particularly his…
The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell My first encounter with Alan Lightman was through his 1992 novel Einstein’s Dreams, a fictional account of the scientist during the period he was working on the…
Expo 58 by Jonathan Coe
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell The Festival of Britain back in 1951 and subsequent World Expos were before my time but I am finding that the 1950s are an attractive era…