What did you do in the great Covid pandemic, Daddy? Well, I didn’t write The Paper Lantern, Will Burns’ wonderfully written lockdown classic, that’s for sure. Like most of us the narrator of The Paper Lantern doesn’t do much. He mooches around his parent’…
Set in the 1990s, in Northumberland and Northern Ireland, The Monarch, is a potrayal of life in a heavily industrial culture, forced to reinvent itself as its once beloved industries find themselves in decline. The story gives an intimate picture of the C…
Simon R. Green is the sort of author I want to call “redoubtable”, a major player in the fantasy fiction scene since the 1990s but curiously much better known in America than in Britain. Moving from the space-opera sagas that characterised his early caree…
Impossible to categorise, this latest book from journalist/author Olivia Laing weaves together biographical studies of several notable twentieth century thinkers and activists to create an open-ended document about the body – our bodies, everybody’s bodie…
The good thing about Elena Ferrante is that she examines a relationship from every conceivable angle. Nothing is left unexamined. Sometimes this results in numerous interpretations of the way people have spoken or behaved. In Elena Ferrante’s latest, book…
To those of us who haven’t been to public school, public school seems to be an institution which well off parents send their kids to to keep them from disturbing their busy and privileged lives during term time. They also seem to be as close to the concep…
We may not need another book about the assumed dystopia we all face due to climate change. But this is a good one, and it’s good because part of what happens in the book is happening already. We can see the well-off creating their bunkers of safety in sub…
You may wonder how someone could write an entire book of “sugar is bad”, but the multitude of surprising contexts in which it is explored in Gary Taube’s The Case Against Sugar transforms a trivial teaspoon of everyday life into something much more seriou…
In his 2015 book, Prisoners of Geography, foreign affairs and international diplomacy journalist, Tim Marshall, revolutionised the way we looked at Geopolitics, associating nations’ geography with their political choices. The Power of Geography exceeds th…
McNish dedicates her latest book to “my grandmothers, who’d most likely have disowned me for most of what is written here”. Thus begins a collection of deeply personal observations in poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, that come together to reflec…
It's really refreshing to see a modern story set outside of London or New York (Mcfarlane sets this story in her hometown of Nottingham). In her seventh novel, she gives you all you might want from a contemporary romance: pining over “what-could-have-been…
“This book... is a love letter to fat, black womxn,” Yeboah tells us on the first page. And about time. Stephanie Yeboah is a plus-size blogger, a freelance writer, a public speaker, a gorgeous model and a lover of Jason Momoa. Her Instagram and other soc…
Ever wondered how you can find a bargain on eBay, what the most eco-friendly fabrics are, or how to give your wardrobe the makeover it deserves?…
The final book in Hilary Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hall’ trilogy is laden with more goodies than a 16th century Michaelmas feast.…
Claudia Durastanti (translated by Christine Donougher) - Like Cleopatra – the Egyptian one – Caterina is adept at juggling lovers. But whereas Cleopatra’s affairs were all wrapped up in the upper political echelons, Caterina’s are distinctly low rent. Eve…
Ren Richards - Ren Richards is the pen name of Lauren DeStefano, a US writer who has won much acclaim for her dystopian series of YA novels. This is her first stab at adult suspense and she’s stirred plenty of juicy ingredients into the pot boiler. It con…
Joe Ide - This is the fourth in Joe Ide’s ‘IQ’ series of LA-set crime thrillers, and it’s as high-octane as ever and packing plenty of heart. IQ is Isaiah Quintabe, a young black man who is semi-legendary in his hood for his work as a private investigator…
Trevor Wood - 2012. Jimmy is a Falkland’s War veteran who, while serving in the navy, suffered significant psychological damage. His wife has left him, he’s estranged from his daughter and he’s living rough on the streets of his hometown of Newcastle. One…
Edited by William Dalrymple - As the East India Company extended its sway across India in the late eighteenth century, many remarkable artworks were commissioned by Company officials from Indian painters who had previously worked for the Mughals. Publishe…
Kiley Reid - Kiley Reid’s debut novel begins in a well-to-do supermarket in Philadelphia. It’s late. A young black woman, Emira, is there with Briar, a white two-year-old toddler that she babysits three times a week. Due to a family emergency, Briar’s par…
Graham Moore - The United States. When fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Jessica Silver goes missing, presumed dead, suspicion falls on one of her schoolteachers. There is evidence that they had an inappropriate relationship, which includes a series of incrimin…
Luke Brown - The titular “theft” of Luke Brown’s latest novel can said to be related to property, as in: all property is theft. When the story begins Paul is living in an off-grid London flat, which has a much cheaper rent than similar places. He – and hi…
Michelle Paver - Out now in paperback this gothic chiller is the perfect stoke-the-fire-and-lock-all-the-doors winter read. It begins with a reporter calling on Maud at her dilapidated old house in the Suffolk fens. It’s 1966. He’s trying to get her to sh…
Robin Morgan-Bentley - When Alice finds that her husband, Adam, is missing she is thrown into a panic. He has a history of depression and her worst fears are realised when she discovers that he has thrown himself in front of a car. She is distraught as is…
Jo Spain - There’s more than a touch of the Agatha Christies about Jo Spain’s latest thriller in which a well-to-do Irish clan reunite at the family home for a celebration, only for things to turn sour when the father is bludgeoned to death. The reasons f…
Paul Summers - This slim volume from Northumbrian poet Paul Summers is a celebration of the rich cultural heritage of mining communities in the region as well as the resurgence of the progressive, socialist, democratic left in the UK. It takes the form of…
Alison Littlewood - This ghost story has a familiar premise. Leah’s young son dies in an accident (her husband is also dead) and she decides a fresh start is required. Where better to begin anew than in a dilapidated old farmhouse nestled in a bleak Yorks…
Vanessa Furse Jackson - Grief is something that we all suffer from and, unsurprisingly, an emotion that has proved a fertile ground for poets and one of solace for readers. (Witness the enduring popularity of Thomas Hardy’s 1912-13 poems written in respon…
Scarlett Thomas - We don’t come across any oligarchs in Scarlett Thomas’s deliciously dark and funny new novel, but we do meet Natasha, the 15-year-old daughter of a shady Russian who arrives at an English boarding school armed with a black Amex card. She…
Andrew Michael Hurley - Andrew Michael Hurley proved himself a modern master of unnerving folk horror in previous novels ‘The Loney’ and ‘Devil’s Day’, but this is his best work to date. Set in rural Yorkshire, during an unspecified time period – possibly…
Clive James - For a poet that is often praised for being “straight forward” and “easy to understand”, especially when compared to 20th century modernists, there is an awful lot to unpack in the work of Philip Larkin. He had the knack of making the plain s…
A. M. Stirling - The key dynamic in this thriller is between cousins, Richard and Amanda, who share a creepy lust/hate relationship. Amanda, a couple of years older than Richard, took Richard’s virginity when they were in their teens but they haven’t met …
Robert Irwin - 1944. Germany. Despite the promise of “Hitler’s secret weapon” most Germans have come round to the notion that the war is not going their way. Sonja Heda, meanwhile, still has belief and, indeed, is contemplating writing her autobiography, …
Lewis Trondheim & Stéphane Oiry - Oddly enough this graphic novel was put together by two Frenchman (with translation by Emma Watson – not that one) but it couldn’t be more British. The rainy streets of Kilburn are depicted with almost obsessive care and …
MJ Cross - This psychological thriller begins with shades of The Lady Vanishes. Jenny Bowen gets on the Caledonian sleeper from London to Scotland. While boarding she sees a woman with a young girl getting into the cabin that is the next but one to hers. …
A. S. Hatch - This debut novel is told in the form of an extended letter, which has been written by Daniel from a place of incarceration. He tells Lucy – we don’t find out who she is until the end – that he’s sure she has read a lot of reports about his c…
Nathan Blackwell - Matt Buchanan – the detective in Nathan Blackwell’s New Zealand set novel – tells us on more than one occasion over the course of this book that real life police work is nothing like you see on TV or in the movies. Blackwell (not actual…
Michelle Tea - Michelle Tea is an American author, poet and literary arts organiser whose best-known works are in fiction and memoir with particular emphasis on queer culture, feminism and race. This is the first collected volume of her journalism, and, r…
Margaret Atwood - First up: Margaret Atwood’s sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ does not sully the memory of the original. Praise be! It’s set around 15 years after the events of that grimly compelling account, but instead of having Offred act as our guide …
Ambrose Parry - Young doctor Will Raven is a man with a past, some of it shady. But when he leaves Berlin to return to his hometown of Edinburgh, circa 1849, he manages to find a position with the esteemed Dr James Simpson, who regards Raven as his protég…
Tayari Jones - The winner of the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction is now out in paperback. The titular marriage is between African Americans Celestial and Roy, who have been wed for around 18 months. One day they visit Roy’s parents in small-town Louisiana …
Mary & Bryan Talbot - The Costa award-winning team behind ‘Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes’ turn their attentions to eco matters in their latest graphic novel. It chronicles the long-distance and developing relationship between two young women and is set agai…
Justin Humphreys - ‘The Abominable Dr. Phibes’ (1971) is one of the best, and certainly one of the most idiosyncratic, horror films of the 1970s. Set in the 1920s it stars Vincent Price as the titular Phibes who, upset that a bunch of surgeons couldn’t sa…
Joseph O’Connor - Set in Victorian London, the latest novel from Joseph O’Connor is a fictionalised account of the relationship between the two leading theatrical lights of the era – Henry Irving and Ellen Terry – and Bram Stoker. Stoker, of course, is th…
Attica Locke - Following the election of Donald Trump, racist crimes have been on the rise in Texas. Feeling particularly empowered are the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. But when the nine-year-old son of one of their leaders – who is currently serving time …
Daniel Cole - If you’re going to have a maverick detective then Wolf is a good a name as any (real name: William Oliver Layton-Fawkes). And the redoubtable Wolf is back in the third book in this trilogy, which began with the best-seller ‘Ragdoll’ and cont…
Adrian McKinley - The United States. Modern day. Rachel receives a phone call informing her that her young daughter, Kylie, has been kidnapped. She is told that she must deposit $25,000 into an account number she is given. But, in order to get her daughte…
Benjamin Myers - Set in austerity Britain, just after the Second World War, ‘The Offing’ concerns 16-year-old Robert Appleyard who, on leaving school, decides that he wants to see something of the world beyond the Durham pit village where he has lived all…
David Nicholls - It might sound like an unnecessarily hackneyed device to write a novel about first love, and have your two protagonists starring in an amateur production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, but David Nicholls pulls it off with his usual dash. It’s sum…
Howard Jacobson - Howard Jacobson is noted for his comic novels (very noted, he won the Booker Prize with ‘The Finkler Question’ back in 2010) but as well as being able to conjure up funny set pieces from the most unlikely of subject matters, he’s also a …
Ocean Vuong - Ocean Vuong won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2017 for his poetry collection ‘Night Sky with Exit Wounds’ in which he drew on his family history: his grandfather was a US soldier posted to Vietnam during the war; his mother gave birth to him when …
Various authors - Launched at the recent IRON OR festival in Cullercoats, this excellent anthology contains poetry, prose and mythology from six writers who live in the seaside village. Novelist Carole Clewlow comes at climate change from an oblique angle…
Jessica Andrews - There are a lot of sweets in ‘Saltwater’. Fruit Polos, Caramacs and fizzy cola bottles all make an appearance in Jessica Andrews’ coming of age debut novel and I put this down to the fact that sweets awaken and enliven our memories like …
Mark Haddon - Mark Haddon, of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ fame, has pulled several rabbits out of several hats with his latest novel. It begins with a plane crash. The only survivor is a baby, Angelica, who we follow as she is brou…
Alex Nathan - 1793. Herbert Powyss lives on a small estate in the Welsh Marches. He longs to make his mark with the Royal Society in London and dreams of one day presenting a science paper of real consequence. He hits on the idea of studying the effects o…
Taylor Jenkins Reid - There has been a lot of hype surrounding Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new novel, which purports to be a biography of the (fictional) band Daisy Jones & The Six. Sadly, rather like that difficult second album, it’s very patchy. It’s written …
Elizabeth Gilbert - The latest novel from the author of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ is the very definition of a page-turning romp. It’s largely set in the early 1940s and tells the story of Vivian Morris, a teenager who has dropped out of school and is packed off t…
Kate Atkinson - Jackson Brodie fans! Rejoice! Yep, Kate Atkinson’s world-weary private detective is back for his fifth adventure. This time he’s hitting the mean streets of Bridlington, Scarborough and Whitby and embroiled in all manner of criminal activi…
Sam Lipsyte - I loved American author Sam Lipsyte’s last novel ‘The Ask’, which detailed the travails of a third-tier university fund-raiser, and while ‘Hark’ doesn’t quite match its sustained barrage of hilarity, there is still plenty to recommend it. Ha…
Linda Grant - Linda Grant won the Orange Prize in 2000 and was shortlisted for the Booker in 2008. Strange then that she should publish a book as shoddy as this. The story begins with the body of an unknown woman who has been fished out of the Thames and …
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