Is there any greater pleasure than reading a much-vaunted book? Yes, as it turns out: it’s reading a book that you really don’t want to read and finding out it’s a gem – in this case, Ava Miles‘ novel, Nora Roberts Land. When Miles’ book came out, I did everything possible to avoid reading … Continue readings →

  Francis Cugat’s striking cover illustration ‘Celestial Eyes’, commissioned for the 1925 edition of The Great Gatsby, is probably one of the most iconic images in literary design history. The haunting eyes, painted in gouache, peering out of a deep blue background, float ominously above bright red lips and a glowing cityscape. Each eye features … Continue readings →

  ‘Who’d kill for you?’ Peabody waited until Eve lowered her hands. ‘I mean who’d kill because somebody was rude to you, or, well, snotty?’ ‘Nobody leaps to mind. I tend to avoid relationships with the homicidal.’ ‘I don’t mean a specific name, Dallas. A type, a category even. Like someone you helped, someone you … Continue readings →

  Social networking platforms are authors’ new best friends. With global reach and, in most cases, instant and direct access to existing and potential markets, Facebook and Twitter are obvious forums for the publishing industry to go to when promoting and selling books – but what about Pinterest? As social networks go, Pinterest, perhaps surprisingly, … Continue readings →

Tags : author Pinterest tips, boards, Facebook vs Pinterest, image social networks, inspirational snacking, MAU's, mood boards, pinning, pins, Pinterest, Pinterest for authors, Pinterest for writers, repinning, repins, social media, social networking, Twitter vs Pinterest

Faiz Ahmed Faiz was a Pakistani-born poet. He was the best-selling poet writing in Urdu in Pakistan and India. See also: No 9 poem ‘Before you came’ in ‘”Between the shadow and the soul” – love in all its guises, 10 love poems’ Other writers of interest: Pablo Neruda; Maya Angelou

  Pablo Neruda was a Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet and politician. Neruda’s real name was Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He wrote many acclaimed collections of poetry, including Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair.  Books include: Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair. See also: Poem no 10, One Hundred Love … Continue readings →

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet of the Romantic movement. She wrote her first ‘epic poem’ aged 12. In 1826, she published An essay on mind and other poems anonymously, later translating Aeschylus’s Prometheus unbound in 1833. It was the 1844 collection Poems that brought her to the attention of poet Robert Browning. Over … Continue readings →

  As a nod to the season of love, we’re posting our favourite 10 love poems. They’re a mixture of ‘between the shadow and the soul’, as our No 10 poet Pablo Neruda so eloquently puts it. This is a collection of the modern and the timeless – celebratory, passionate, hopeful and heartbreaking prose, put … Continue readings →

  Talented singer–songwriter, musician, composer and poet Polly Jean aka ‘PJ’ Harvey is all about experiencing new things and pushing existing boundaries. Currently recording her ninth album at London’s historic Somerset House, to timed audiences, Harvey comments: ‘When you’re making music with other people in a space, you connect on a very primal level in … Continue readings →

Tags : Bloomsbury, Leonard Cohen, musician, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, poetry, Polly Jean Harvey, Somerset House, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, Thom Yorke

  ‘You need sex’, Beatrice proclaimed. ‘And maybe a new kitchen.’ ‘I need more than sex. I need a life.’ Viola looked at all the chrome surrounding them as she delivered a cup of coffee to her older sister. The kitchen was cold and impersonal, just like her ex-husband Charles, who’d picked it all out. … Continue readings →

Kate Perry is the author of several very successful books, most famously the Laurel Heights’ and Summerhill series, set in San Francisco and London, respectively. BOOKS INCLUDE: How Sweet It Is REVIEWS: ‘From London to Paris and back again – Kate Perry’s How Sweet It Is, A Review‘, in The Literary Lounge See also: Mary … Continue readings →

  She sulked over her eggs. Even bacon lost some appeal with the prospect of wrangling with Summerset. ‘Isn’t it bad enough I have to face hours of swarming decorators, then end that small nightmare by having Trina pour gunk all over me? Now I have to face the smirking disapproval of our resident corpse?’ … Continue readings →

Tags : crime fiction, Eve Dallas, Eve–Roarke series, female crime-fiction detectives, Festive in Death, In Death series, JD Robb, Lieutenant Eve Dallas, Nora Roberts, NYPD homicide crime fiction, Piatkus, Putnum Adult, Roarke, women in crime fiction

    My sister left a message for me yesterday afternoon, saying how sorry she was that Maya Angelou had died and how she was thinking of me. Then several other friends sent similar messages. Although I was lucky enough to meet Maya Angelou once a very long time ago at The Algonquin Hotel in … Continue readings →

  EDITOR’S CHOICE ‘…[E]ven though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be … Continue readings →

  Michael Morpurgo is the former Children’s Laureate (2003–5) and is an acclaimed, much-loved award-winning author of fiction, plays and poetry. His work includes: War Horse; Kensuke’s Kingdom (a personal favourite) and The Goose Is Getting Fat. In 2014, he edited the World War I charity anthology Only Remembered.   REVIEW: ‘Only Remembered – remembering World … Continue readings →