editor’s choice
Lynda La Plante is one of those names that people know. A former actress turned-screenwriter and novelist, La Plante is behind some of the most successful TV series globally, including Widows and Prime Suspect, which made her name internationally. Buried, the author’s latest venture, published tomorrow in the UK, is a nod to … Continue readings
Tags : Buried, Crime Writers Association, DC Jack Warr, Dolly Rawlins, Jack Warr #1, La Plante, Lynda La Plante, Widows, Zaffre
There’s a beauty to Christy Lefteri’s prose that binds us to The Beekeeper of Aleppo from the very first page. Beautifully rendered, it’s a tale of our time, the refugee’s story, of the struggle to triumph over the greatest of adversities, of the search for light in the darkest of places. Lefteri, herself … Continue readings
Tags : bees, Christy Lefteri, civll war, displacement, refugees, Syria, Syrian refugees, The Beekeeper of Aleppo
When you read a Jill Mansell novel you know you’re in a pair of safe hands. Overflowing with charming characters, interesting plot threads and great locations, with more than a sprinkle of romance, wit and comic relief, Mansell’s books are tightly written and wonderfully realised. Her latest work, It Started with a Secret, thankfully, … Continue readings
Tags : comedy of errors, Cornwall, feel good, Headline, It Started with a Secret, Jill Mansell, Jilly Cooper, romance, romantic drama, St Carys, St Ives
If much-loved literary characters were to come to life, that really would be a dream come true for most book lovers. Not so much so for Charley Sutherland, the protagonist of New Zealander HG Parry’s fictional debut, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep. Since childhood, Charley has had a special power, one that … Continue readings
Tags : editor's choice, HG Parry, imagination, New Zealand, New Zealand Writer, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, The Wild One
We periodically wax lyrical about independent presses and their lists and Karen Sullivan’s Orenda Books has had several such shout outs. She’s a canny publisher with a great eye, and the range and quality of her authors support that. So, no surprise then that wonderful Doug Johnstone’s latest novel, A Dark Matter, is published … Continue readings
Tags : A Dark Matter, Doug Johnstone, Edinburgh, indie presses, Karen Sullivan, Orenda Books, Scottish noir, Scottish writers
Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women is a beautifully produced book, showcasing Sharon Blackie’s rather terrific tales. Drawing on global female folklore and mythology – from the familiar Snow Queen, immortalised by Hans Christian Andersen, to Croatia’s ‘she wolf’, with its similarities to the Celtic selkies, Slavic Baba Yaga, the creator-goddess turned … Continue readings
We love Tom Cox. He’s rapidly become a favourite author, his writing poignant, funny, entertaining. Like many, we first encountered him via his musings on the much missed The Bear and his other fabulous felines. His subject matter is wide-ranging, from music to witches, toads to his shouty dad. His latest book, Ring the … Continue readings
Tags : leaping hares, Meet Tom Cox, Ralph, Ring the Hill, Robert Macfarlane, Shipley, The Bear, Tom Cox, Unbound, Underland
Icon n. – person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.” ‘ICON’ IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST OVER-USED WORDS in the English language. We apply it with little thought or reason. Yet there are a handful of truly iconic figures – the legend that is … Continue readings
Tags : A–Z of crushes, all about my mother, icon, icons, Judy Garland, music, Susie Boyt, Virago
On 23 June 1919, seven exceptional women gathered at 46 Dover Street in London’s Mayfair to do something that had never been done before – to create a professional organisation dedicated to campaigning for women’s rights. It was the official birth of the Women’s Engineering Society, the fruit of an idea conceived several months … Continue readings
Tags : feminism, feminist history, Magnificent Women and their Revolutionary Machines, suffrage, women's history
We’ve already waxed lyrical about the IWM’s republishing of four Second World War literary classics this month. By doing so, it’s giving voice to men and women who wrote so beautifully and poignantly about a great, brutal war. David Piper’s extraordinary Trial By Battle is the second book we’re reviewing and it is quite … Continue readings
Tags : Alexander Baron, Anthony Quayle, David Piper, Eight Hours from England, Frank Kermode, From the City From the Plough, Imperial War Museum, India, IWM Classics, Trial by Fire, war poets, World War II
Gosh, hats off to the Imperial War Museum for great publishing with the wartime classics series. We’ve already reviewed two of the four novels being republished by the IWM this month. Now, with great pleasure, we’ve become acquainted with Anthony Quayle’s very fine and highly entertaining adventure Eight Hours to England. Based on Quayle’s … Continue readings
Tags : Alexander Baron, Alistair MacLean, Anthony Quayle, David Piper, editor's choice, film, Hitchcock, IWM, Second World War, war, wartime classics
There’s a lovely moment In the Absence of Miracles, when Michael J. Malone’s protagonist is catching up with a childhood friend whom he hasn’t seen in an age, and the residual awkwardness that one quite often feels in such circumstances just falls away. ‘There we sat, with legs kicking the side. The years fell … Continue readings
Tags : Crime Writers Association, In the Absence of Miracles, Karen Sullivan, Michael J. Malone, Orenda Books, psychological thriller, Scottish noir
When I was reading Laura Thompson’s beautifully penned The Last Landlady, I was trying to think about why I love memoir and biography so much. What it is about these genres that so enthralls. And when they’re done well, they are enthralling, the writers weaving us into the subjects’ worlds so tightly that we’re … Continue readings
Tags : biography, editor's choice, history, Laura Thompson, memoir, The Last Landlady, Unbound
We learn about war from an early age. We’re taught about it in our classrooms, read about it in the beautiful, haunting poetry of the war poets – Sassoon, Owen, Jarrell. Yet now social media and our global village world mean our access to war is pretty much immediate and, we are, in many … Continue readings
Tags : 80th anniversary Second World War, Alexander Baron, Anthony Quayle, D-Day, David Piper, Eight Hours from England, From the City From the Plough, IWM, Kathleen Hewitt, Plenty Under the Counter, Trial by Battle, war poets
‘There are people who think they understand a book just because they know how to read. I already told you that books are like mirrors: every person finds in them what they have in their own head. The problem is that you only discover what you have inside you when you read the right … Continue readings
Tags : El libro savage, HopeRoad Publications, Juan Villoro, Lawrence Schimel, magic realism, Mexican authors, Mexican Updike, The Wild One, Villoro, YA