October 19, 2021 Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian Review by Liz Dexter “For Japan’s lotus blossom, praying mantis and bear, we have bramble, wood louse and urban fox” Lev Parikian, a writer,…
October 5, 2021 The Right Sort of Girl by Anita Rani Review by Liz Dexter How on earth did I get to where I am today? This is no overnight success story, this is not…
September 30, 2021 The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye By Liz Dexter This book is primarily concerned with explaining how society, as it is currently arranged, often makes trans people’s lives unnecessarily difficult….
September 7, 2021 Your Voice Speaks Volumes: It’s Not What You Say but How You Say It, by Jane Setter Review by Liz Dexter I would like the message of this chapter to be that we should all be more tolerant of people’s voice…
August 31, 2021 A Room of Her Own: Inside the Homes and Lives of Creative Women by Robyn Lea Review by Liz Dexter Robyn Lea has a theory that there is a new Renaissance happening among creative women, who are expressing themselves and…
August 3, 2021 Broken Greek by Pete Paphides Reviewed by Liz Dexter Stuck with a bunch of friends who seemed to think I was something other than what I was; guilty about…
June 7, 2021 Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack by Richard Ovenden Review by Liz Dexter The processes of selection, acquisition and cataloguing, as well as of disposal and retention, are never neutral acts. They are…
May 25, 2021 Field Work: What Land Does to People and What People Do to Land by Bella Bathurst Review by Liz Dexter “This place, this land, wasn’t a job or a business: it was everything – past and future, identity and rhythm,…
May 11, 2021 Digging up Britain: A New History in Ten Extraordinary Discoveries by Mike Pitts Reviewed by Liz Dexter “Who are we? Where do we come from? What is Britain, and what does it mean to be British?” This…
April 29, 2021 Empireland: How Imperialism has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera Reviewed by Liz Dexter “If we don’t confront the reality of what happened in British empire, we will never be able to work out…
April 1, 2021 Hyphens & Hashtags* by Claire Cock-Starkey Reviewed by Liz Dexter Subtitled “The stories behind the symbols on our keyboards” (the subtitle linked to the main title via an asterisk rather…
March 2, 2021 Grayson’s Art Club: The Exhibition (Manchester Art Gallery, 2020) Reviewed by Liz Dexter Back at the beginning of the first lockdown, Grayson Perry, potter and tapestry maker extraordinaire and no stranger to intimate…
February 2, 2021 Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights, edited by Polly Russell and Margaretta Jolly Reviewed by Liz Dexter It used to be that we attended exhibitions and treated ourselves to the catalogue in the shop on the way…
December 15, 2020 Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell Reviewed by Liz Dexter I greatly enjoyed reading Nancy Campbell’s meditation on the icy places of the world, The Library of Ice. last year,…
December 1, 2020 Follies: An Architectural Journey by Rory Fraser Reviewed by Liz Dexter A delightful little book put out by a relatively new publisher founded in 2017 with a rather intriguing list, this…
November 26, 2020 Work: A History of How We Spend our Time by James Suzman Reviewed by Liz Dexter I will say right away that this is probably not the book you think it will be. The subtitle suggests…
November 12, 2020 The Secret Life of Books: Why They Mean More than Words by Tom Mole Paperback review by Liz Dexter Tom Mole, as Professor of English Literature and Book History at the University of Edinburgh, is certainly qualified to…
November 5, 2020 Wintering: A Season With Geese by Stephen Rutt Reviewed by Liz Dexter Stephen Rutt and his partner move to Dumfries, to a flat near the Solway Firth, just as he’s finishing writing…
October 15, 2020 Kitted Out: Style and Youth Culture in the Second World War by Caroline Young Reviewed by Liz Dexter This extremely well-researched and authoritative book takes us through the Second World War, in the UK, the US, the Far…
September 24, 2020 Unofficial Britain: Journeys Through Unexpected Places by Gareth E. Rees Reviewed by Liz Dexter Opening notably and powerfully with a description of travelling through a traditional countryside location, innocent dry stone walls at first,…
September 17, 2020 Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal by Sarah Maslin Nir Review by Liz Dexter Sarah Maslin Nir is a staff reporter for the New York Times who, by her own admission, has sought out…
September 8, 2020 The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes Reviewed by Liz Dexter A book that is in turns entertaining, lyrical and shocking, you won’t think about the countryside – or the rivers…
August 20, 2020 The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book, ed. James Raven Reviewed by Liz Dexter As you would expect from an Oxford Illustrated History of … this is a sumptuous production, world-wide in scope and…
July 30, 2020 Grayson Perry by Jacky Klein & Grayson Perry Reviewed by Liz Dexter This sumptuous book, that has a lot of content, in terms of both text and image, is a real treat…
July 9, 2020 Into the Tangled Bank by Lev Parikian Review by Liz Dexter Lev Parikian is a conductor and, more recently, a birdwatcher, and you might have seen or read his book on…
