the literary lounge

  Have you heard of kintsugi? Sydney says. Ila shakes her head. It’s the old Japanese art of repairing broken or chipped pottery. They use layers of lacquer, often with powdered gold. Instead of hiding the damage, it’s embraced. It’s treated as part of an object’s ongoing beauty. I love that, Ila says.”   Rachel … Continue readings →

Tags : Do Not Feed the Bear, editor's choice, Headline books, Rachel Elliott, Tinder Press

  A fast-paced psychological thriller, Gone marks Leona Deakin’s thriller debut and introduces Dr Augusta Bloom and Marcus Jameson to audiences.   People are disappearing and, in each case, a birthday card is left behind stating: ‘YOUR GIFT IS THE GAME. CARE TO PLAY’ – posing the question are the victims really victims or have … Continue readings →

Tags : Augusta Bloom, Black Swan, Bloom and Jameson 1, Dr Augusta Bloom, Gone, Leona Deakin, psychological crime

    ‘Very ancient buildings have a way of talking to you … So many secrets waiting to be uncovered.’ ‘I’ve always thought that, too,’ I say. ‘Actually, I’ve always talked to Ponden since I was little; it seems impolite not to.’ ” – Tru Heaton Jones discussing Ponden Hall with Marcus Ellis   Rowan … Continue readings →

Tags : Brontes, Gothic literature, the Gytrash, the Heaton family, Wuthering Heights, Yorkshire moors

  Erin Kinsley’s Found centres on every parent’s nightmare, the abduction of an eleven-year-old boy from a bus stop on his way back home from school. The book details the devastating impact on Evan’s immediate family and the best friend who had just been with him and the reality of an over-subscribed police force, crying … Continue readings →

Tags : anne cater, book reviews, chiild abduction, chiildren abducted found, child abduction, child abuse, crime fiction, DI Naylor, Erin Kinsley, Found, Headline books, missing children, paedophiles, police procedurals, The Literary Lounge, The Literary Shed

  We’re great lovers of reading books with strong locations. London has particular resonance for us as it’s our home, and so we probably would have liked Phoebe Locke’s The July Girls for its setting alone. The city informs the book, the locations – Brixton, north London or elsewhere – used to frame the plot. … Continue readings →

Tags : 7 July 2005, 7/7, 9/11, book reviews, criminology, London bombings 7 Juy 2005, London-based novels, Magpie, Phoebe Locke, serial killlers, The July Girls, The Literary Lounge, women crime-fiction novelists

  Performance room, featuring Marcelle van Caillie’s work © Morokoth Fournier de Carots   The arts are littered with beautiful works based on lost love letters. The House of Marcelle, Explore the Arch’s latest offering, joins them, drawing on the missives of Marcelle van Caillie and lover-later-husband Henry Sanford. A multi-sensory work, it brings the … Continue readings →

Tags : domestic theatre space, Explore the Arch, Henry Sanford, intimate theatre, Marcelle van Caillie, Marcelle van Caillie art, Marcelle van Caillie letters, migrant experience, Strindberg, The House of Marcelle

    We’re utterly delighted to welcome wonderful Welsh–Canadian romantic-historical fiction writer Mary Balogh to The Literary Lounge. Described as the ‘superstar heir’ to the legacy of late, great Georgette Heyer, Mary is the recipient of numerous awards and has graced the New York Times bestseller list thirty-six times in her career thus far. Her … Continue readings →

Tags : Bedwyns, Canadian writer Mary Balogh, Frederica, Georgette Heyer, historical romantic fiction, Little Brown authors, Mary Balogh, Mary Balogh 2019, New York Times bestselling writers, Piatkus romantic fiction, Regency, Regency writer Mary Balogh, RNA, romantic fiction, RWA, Simply series, superstar heir to Georgette Heyer, The Literary Lounge, The Literary Lounge Q&As, Welsh-Canadian authors, Westcott series

  There’s a point early on in Paul Burston’s The Closer I Get when protagonist Tom goes to the police to report that he’s being harassed. The female detective who interviews him is astonished to hear that he’s been stalked for about a year and not reported it. Why?, she asks. I was embarrassed, he … Continue readings →

  Early on in Is Monogamy Dead?, comedian Rosie Wilby explains that ‘monogamy’ originates from the Greek words monos gamos, meaning ‘one marriage for life’. The book that follows is an honest, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant exploration of a concept which, for many, seems outdated, if not unworkable in a twenty-first century framework. Aged 40, … Continue readings →

Tags : Accent Press, Accent Press non-fiction, Curious Arts Festival 2019, humour, Is Monogamy Dead?, love army, monogamy, polyamory, Port Eliot Festival 2019, relationship books, Rosie Wilby, Rosie Wilby comedian, Rosie Wilby Womans Hour, self-help, Wilderness Festival 2019, Womans Hour

  Drawing on the letters and diaries of her parents, Debbie Rix’s new novel, The Secret Letter, follows English Imogen and German Magda as they deal with the heartache and terror of living in countries impacted by the Second World War. Early in the war, Imogen is evacuated to the Lake District away from her … Continue readings →

Tags : Bookouture, British women writers, contemporary historical fiction, contemporary literature, Debbie Rix, digital books, historical fiction, Hitler Youth, resistance, Second World War, Second World War literature, The Secret Letter, The Silent Letter, war books, White Rose, White Rose movement

  I love it when I’m introduced to writers I’ve never read before, especially when I know they’re going to be new friends. That’s the case with Joseph Knox. The Sleepwalker, which is published this month by Doubleday, is the third outing for Detective Aidan Waits and yet it’s my introduction to him. I really … Continue readings →

Tags : Aidan Waits, Aidan Waits 3, British crime fiction, British noir, Doubleday, Joseph Knox, Manchester noir, The Sleepwalker

    Longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2019, Yvonne Battle-Felton’s novel Remembered is a book of many stories. In 1910 Philadelphia, central character Spring sits by the hospital bed of her dying son. Edmund is accused of driving a streetcar into a ‘no coloreds’ department store. As Spring watches him, the ghost of her dead … Continue readings →

Tags : African American women writers, African American writers, BAME, Battle-Felton, black women writers, dialogue books, Long-listed Women's Prize, Remembered, slave history, slave writing, Women's Prize 2019, Yvonne Battle-Felton

  Today, we’re delighted to have wonderful Louise Voss with us in The Literary Lounge, talking all things music and writerly. Louise is the author of 13 books, including The Old You (2018), published by indie press Orenda Books to huge critical acclaim. We loved, loved, loved, loved it and so, of course, are beside … Continue readings →

  Many authors have turned to writing after suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), creating beauty and peace while ‘struggling with a torn mind’, as Karl Tearney phrases it so eloquently in the introduction to his collection of poems, Second Life. A former pilot in the British Army Air Corp, Tearney joined up as … Continue readings →

  We’re huge fans of JD Robb’s Eve Dallas–Roarke futuristic crime series, especially as they just get better over time. Connections in Death builds on Dallas’ ever-growing family, seeing familiar and beloved characters go through extremely challenging and bloody times only to rise stronger than before. As always, Robb creates a fast-paced, detailed and carefully … Continue readings →

Tags : Connections in Death, Dallas–Roarke, dystopian crime fiction, Eve Dallas, Eve Dallas thriller, In Death series, JD Robb, Nora Roberts, Peabody, Roarke, women in crime fiction