Book news, reviews and recommendations
April’s first batch of paperbacks includes three of my books of last year beginning with one from a favourite author. Robert Seethaler‘s The Café with No Name opens in 1960s Vienna against a backdrop of a social change as the city picks itself up after the war. It follows Robert Simon, an orphan and market […]
Paperbacks to Look Out For in April 2026: Part One Read More »
In contrast to 2024’s damp squib, this year’s summer seemed to stretch from April to October. A great one for reading as well as sun, too, beginning with three very different favourites in quick succession in July. Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper spans a single day which sees Thomas Flett lifted out of his hardscrabble life for
Books of the Year 2025: Part Three Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – Seascraper to Shadow Ticket Read More »
Not my favourite prize but, for some reason, I can’t resist putting together a wish list for the Booker. To be eligible for this year’s prize all books must be published in the UK or Ireland between 1st October 2024 and 30th September 2025 and have been written in English. The judges usually stick to
My 2025 Booker Wish List Read More »
I’d not read anything by Benjamin Wood when Seascraper was pitched to me. It’s his fourth book but this is his first novella, beautifully packaged with a cover that fits it well. Set sometime in the 1950s, it takes place over a single day which sees Thomas Flett lifted out of his hardscrabble life for
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood: Vividly atmospheric Read More »
Once a year H and I travel north to see our dear friends M, who lives one side of the Pennines, and N, who lives the other. This year we rented a cottage in Holmfirth on the Yorkshire side planning to meet N later in the week, sadly scuppered as he and his partner had
Three Days in Yorkshire, One in Shropshire and Most of a Book Read More »
I’ve read two from this second selection of July’s new fiction beginning with one I’d not expected to enjoy as much as I did. Opening in the early 2000s, Alexander Starritt’s Drayton and Mackenzie follows James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie who met briefly at Oxford. Driven and intensely competitive, even with himself, James is the
Books to Look Out For in July 2025: Part Two Read More »