Henry VIII – The Heart & The Crown by Alison Weir
Review by Julie Barham Many people have asked Alison Weir about writing the story of Henry to go alongside her excellent Six Tudor Queens series (Anna of Kleve – Queen…
Remainders of the Day by Shaun Bythell
Review by Julie Barham A further book recording life in all its humour and honesty, this is a brilliant read which captures so much from the perspective of Shaun Bythell,…
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Review by Julie Barham Ian McEwan’s output is made up of a great variety of types of novels, going from the specific to the general, and sometimes back again. He…
A Death in the Parish by The Reverend Richard Coles
Review by Julie Barham I often seek out what can be called “cosy crime” or at least crime novels that are not too brutal or police procedural. Richard Coles is…
My Turn to Make the Tea by Monica Dickens
Reviewed by Julie Barham Monica Dickens wrote many novels, but her first three books were actually fictionalised memoirs of her first three “Jobs”, a varied collection. This book is the…
Constance Maud’s No Surrender: A Graphic Novel by Scarlett & Sophie Rickard
Review by Julie Barham Colourful, powerful and amazingly enjoyable – this new version of Constance Maud’s suffragette classic as a graphic novel is a revelation. I have not read many…
The Accidental Detectorist by Nigel Richardson
Review by Julie Barham If you are interested in the process of finding objects from the past, this book, subtitled “Uncovering an Underground Obsession” will probably draw you in with…
Midsummer Murder by Clifford Witting
Review by Julie Barham This novel is in some senses an extraordinary achievement. It is a sort of locked area murder mystery when that area is in full public view….
Small Angels by Lauren Owen
Review by Julie Barham A modern Gothic novel is often a treat, especially if its narrative plays on the edge of reality and the supernatural. This novel finds space between…
Traitor in the Ice by K.J. Maitland
Review by Julie Barham This book is a powerful, sometimes brutal historical novel set in the winter of 1607, when life seemed frozen by a cold that exploded trees and…
The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is an historical novel with much to recommend it, and as it is created by a world famous crime writer there is also the probability…
The Drowned City by K.J. Maitland
Review by Julie Barham A world turned upside down is the subject of this vivid historical novel set in an English city: politically a new royal house is in power,…
Frontline by Dr Hilary Jones
Review by Julie Barham Medical knowledge and techniques were vastly increased during and immediately after the First World War, as the loss of so many fighting men was dwarfed by…
Anna of Kleve – Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir
Review by Julie Barham It is well known that Henry VIII had six wives – and none more mysterious than the one that he married virtually unseen, and parted from…
Lux by Elizabeth Cook
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is an immensely profound book. It encompasses huge themes – birth and death, self imposed exile and imprisonment, the deep thought of the well known…
I Am Heathcliff – Stories Inspired by Wuthering Heights, curated by Kate Mosse
Review by Julie Barham It is never easy to review a collection of short stories, especially one by such a diverse selection of authors as this one. It contains stories…
The King’s Witch by Tracy Borman
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is the debut novel written by Tracy Borman, who is a popular historian and Curator of Historic Royal Palaces. The research is therefore impeccable, the…
White King: The Tragedy of Charles I by Leanda de Lisle
Review by Julie Barham This is a book that in many ways reads like a novel. That said, it is also a non- fiction history book, well presented with at…
Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
Reviewed by Julie Barham There are some books which are so good that I struggle to find words to suggest how much I appreciate them, and this is one of…
Vocations by Gerald O’Donovan
Reviewed by Julie Barham This Irish novel, originally published in 1921, reprinted by Handheld Press, is a tremendously engaging read. Dealing with the fates of two girls in Catholic Ireland,…
The Runagates Club by John Buchan
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is a splendid book for all those who revel in the scary, the heroic and the unusual. Anyone familiar with John Buchan’s best known novel, The…
A Hundred Tiny Threads by Judith Barrow
Reviewed by Julie Barham I received a review copy of this book from Honno Press, the Welsh Women’s Press, as I was intrigued by the idea of a book which…
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Reviewed by Julie Barham The inevitable question is, do we need a new edition of one of Austen’s books? Well, on the evidence of this super book, sent to me…
Clayhanger by Arnold Bennett
Review by Julie Barham Vintage books have produced a new edition of possibly the best known of Bennett’s novels featuring the story of Edwin Clayhanger. It is very much more…
- 1
- 2