Today, we’re delighted to welcome writer TOM COX to The Literary Lounge. The author of nine non-fiction books – and friend to many felines, including the beautiful The Bear – Tom makes his fictional debut this month with the short story collection Help the Witch, published by Unbound. Tom, thanks so much for joining … Continue readings →

Tags : 21st Century Yokel, Help the Witch, Help the Witch Blog Tour, Ramblings Clare Balding, Random Things Tours, Short stories, short story collections, The Bear, Tom Cox, Tom Cox journalist, Unbound, Witch

    Award-winning musician Gwyneth Herbert ends her Letters I Haven’t Written tour at the Opus Theatre, in Hastings, on 18 October 2018. Here A. Vasudevan catches up with the singer–songwriter at Fika in St Leonards on Sea. Everyone has a letter they haven’t written. In this age of disposable communication, a quick text or … Continue readings →

Tags : Calais refugee camp, fishing with squirrels, Gwyneth Herbert, letter songs, letter writing, Letters I haven't written, Martin Read, mental health issues, music therapy, music tour, suicide, Windrush

  ‘Palm Beach Finland…’ he began and hadn’t managed to formulate the rest of the question before the woman replied. ‘The name is new, the place is old,’ said Koski and glanced behind her. ‘The new owner painted a few walls, put up a sign and renamed the place. He wants to give it an … Continue readings →

  ANTHONY BURGESS ONCE COMMENTED THAT ‘ALL NOVELS ARE EXPERIMENTAL’, and while that appears true of such work as A Clockwork Orange and Napoleon Symphony, I think he would be delighted with Adam Roberts’ The Black Prince, based on a 90-page screenplay that Burgess wrote, which was never filmed. Roberts, an academic, great Burgess fan … Continue readings →

Tags : 14th century England, Adam Roberts, Anthony Burgess, Dos Passos, Edward III, from screen to novel, historical fiction, medieval European historical fiction, pastiche, The Black Prince, Unbound, war

  ‘Personal background info. Loud noises make me flinch, and many, many much quieter ones … make me want to punch the wall … Strangers at the door make me nervous. Random conversation in the street makes me suspicious. … Thomas, aforementioned guardian, knows better than anyone how much I hate change in general and … Continue readings →

Tags : coming of age, Coming of Age fiction, contemporary fiction, cult fiction, long-listed fiction, Martine McDonagh, Narcissism for Beginners, reading on location, women writers

  For some reason, and please don’t ask me why, Queen’s ‘Another one bites the dust’ was going through my head as I read Overkill. On repeat. This was slightly off-putting, but strangely quite fitting given that the opening – probably one of the best, attention-grabbing first scenes of any book I’ve read recently – … Continue readings →

Tags : crime fiction, female detective fiction, New Zealand noir, Ngaio Marsh, Ngaio Marsh award, NZ fiction, NZ writers, Orenda, procedural fiction, Queens of detective fiction, Sam Shephard, The Literary Lounge Q&A, Vanda Symon

  Today, we’re delighted to welcome New Zealand writer extraordinaire VANDA SYMON to The Literary Lounge. Overkill, the first book featuring protagonist Sam Shephard, is published in the UK by Orenda. Vanda, thanks so much for spending time with us.     LS: I believe Overkill was the first novel you wrote and  published. How … Continue readings →

Tags : Mataura, Meet the author The Literary Lounge, New Zealand noir, Ngaio Marsh award, NZ crime fiction, Overkill, procedural crime fiction, Roderick Alleyn, Sam Shephard, Sam Shephard series, Taika Waititi, The Literary Lounge Q&A, Troy and Alleyn, Vanda Symon

  Today, we’re delighted to welcome writer Mike Shanahan to The Literary Lounge. Mike’s beautiful book, Ladders to Heaven, is published by Unbound. It celebrates the fig tree, a ‘keystone species’ which sustains a huge number of animals and insects around the world and is also important not just in terms of our past but … Continue readings →

Tags : book review, book review Shanahan, books about trees, botany, fig trees, flora and fauna, Ladder to Heaven, Mike Shanahan, non-fiction, Q&A, The Literary Lounge Q&A, tree love, Unbound

  This is an important year, the centenary of the introduction of the first vote for women in Britain. The vote – the privilege of being able to vote, to step forward and have a voice – is something to be celebrated, especially in these times of politically shifting sands. So, when I first heard … Continue readings →

  The Incendiaries, RO Kwon’s debut novel, is a restrained study of obsession, deceit, love and loss. Kwon’s characters, Will, Phoebe and John Leal, meet at an elite American university. Will and Phoebe are students there, John Leal, the arcane leader of a cult linked to North Korea who focuses his attention on recruiting Phoebe. … Continue readings →

  We’re experiencing an ‘Indian Summer’ apparently. And although I know what that means – unseasonably warm weather in late autumn – the term’s always slightly baffled me as summers in India are much earlier in the year and far more intense. So, I did what all good people do and googled it and it’s … Continue readings →

  If you were to say that you were writing a book combining Sherlock Holmes, iconic filmmaker Billy Wilder and the Loch Ness Monster, set in London and Scotland, in two different time periods, I would probably wonder if the world had gone slightly mad – yet that’s exactly what novelist Patrick Kincaid has done … Continue readings →

    Today, we’re delighted to welcome writer Patrick Kincaid to The Literary Lounge.  Patrick’s debut book, The Continuity Girl, is published by Unbound. It draws on iconic filmmaker Billy Wilder’s controversial and yet cult movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. We’re particularly excited as we love Sherlock in all his incarnations and yet … Continue readings →

  doppelgänger noun An apparition or double of a living person.“   The doppelgänger is a recurring device in popular culture, the duplicate other often featuring as part of some larger, nefarious plot – the rather creepy film The Double Man (1967) and Ira Levin’s excellent The Stepford Wives (1972) cases in point. Michael Redhill, … Continue readings →

Endless summer days invariably mean long hours in the sun, late nights and possibly a little bit too much fun, if there is such a thing. So, sometimes we need to take time out for ourselves and recharge. A simple, restorative green mung bean soup can really do the trick. The tiny mung bean is … Continue readings →