Hope Farm by Peggy Frew
Reviewed by Annabel Peggy Frew is an up and coming Australian author, and Hope Farm is her second novel. Alongside her writing, Peggy plays bass and sings in indie band Art of…
Reviewed by Annabel Peggy Frew is an up and coming Australian author, and Hope Farm is her second novel. Alongside her writing, Peggy plays bass and sings in indie band Art of…
Review by Annabel Mary Portas is one of those TV presenter/gurus you either love or find profoundly irritating. I love her and her championing of the high street and independent…
Reviewed by Annabel Francis Spufford is known for his five non-fiction books, the subjects of which are varied in the extreme, notably his delightful memoir of childhood reading The Child…
Compiled by Annabel The story goes that London cabbies won’t go ‘South of the River’ after dark – I have no proof of this, but it’s an enduring myth. Asked…
Reviewed by Annabel Debut novelist P.K. Lynch trained as an actor before having a family and turning to writing plays. Her first professional acting job was playing Lizzy in Trainspotting, (in…
Translated by Alison Anderson Reviewed by Annabel If like me, you read and loved Muriel Barbery’s bestselling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which blended romance, philosophy and a teenaged genius…
Reviewed by Annabel Ambler was one of the great British thriller writers and his works are ripe for reappraisal. They had gradually become out of print until Penguin brought out…
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 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 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 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…
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…
Reviewed by Annabel Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell has long been one of my favourite novels. Woodrell’s books which are mostly set in the Missouri Ozarks tend to feature poor folk…
Reviewed by Annabel Thank goodness that Ali Shaw’s novels are impossible to categorise. They are contemporary dramas with transformation at their heart, not out and out fantasies, but full of…
Reviewed by Annabel There are only 105 pages to this short novel, making it a novella really, but it sure does pack a punch. It has a cast of characters…
Reviewed by Annabel Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter, although that wasn’t his original name either) was a prolific author, writing over eighty novels. These included over fifty ‘87th Precinct’ books; with…
Reviewed by Annabel The anticipation of re-reading a book first read and enjoyed as a child always gives me a feeling of mild discomfort. Can it work on an adult…
Reviewed by Annabel Do you remember how the wonderful TV series Six Feet Under began? In the opening scene, one of the key characters, Nathaniel Fisher Sr., is run over by a…
Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel French author Lemaitre is best known for his gory yet gripping trilogy of serial killer novels featuring the detective Camille Verhoeven. They aren’t…
Paperback review by Annabel Most trilogies are strictly sequential, one volume carrying on from another. Louise Welsh’s ‘Plague Times’ trilogy is slightly different (so far) in that the first two…
Reviewed by Annabel O’Neill’s first novel, Only Ever Yours, published in 2014, won a host of prizes in her native Ireland. Aimed at older teenagers upwards, it was a futuristic…
Reviewed by Annabel Tess’s mother died giving birth to her brother Axel. They live with their father in a cabin at the edge of a town in the middle of…
Reviewed by Annabel I was lucky enough to have discovered Jonathan Coe fairly early on in his career, back when the paperback edition of What a Carve Up! was published…
Reviewed by Annabel Ranjit Bolt is well known as a translator and playwright. He came to prominence when two of his translations of French comedies by Pierre Corneille, The Liar and The Illusion,…