Book news, reviews and recommendations
Despite the many protestations on this blog that I’m not an historical novel fan, I usually read at least one a year that hits the spot for me, often in autumn or winter. Last year’s was Lucy Jago’s A Net for Small Fishes. This year’s looked set to be Susan Stokes-Chapman’s Pandora. Set in Georgian […]
Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman: Opening the box Read More »
Regular visitors to this blog will know that I tend not to review historical novels. There are exceptions, of course – Jake Arnott’s The Fatal Tree and Andrew Miller’s Now We Shall be Entirely Free spring to mind – but generally my feet are planted firmly in the twenty-first century. You might be surprised then
Here’s one I’ve been looking forward to ever since I spotted it in the publisher’s catalogue. Helen Dunmore’s new novel, Birdcage Walk, is set in her home town of Bristol against the backdrop of the French Revolution raging across the Channel while Britain looks nervously on. It’s the story of a young woman caught up
Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore: The rights of women Read More »
Jake Arnott’s first novel, The Long Firm, was published way back in 1999. I was a huge fan: he summoned up London’s underworld in prose as sharp as a ‘60s mobster’s suit, expertly blending fact with fiction. A hard act to follow, then, and sorry to say Arnott’s never quite matched it for me but
The Fatal Tree by Jake Arnott: A rollicking tale of thieves and whores Read More »
Regular readers of this blog will know that I tend to bang on a bit about jackets. It’s the old bookseller in me – I hate to see good novels done a disservice by their packaging. In this particular case, the jacket is far from off-putting but it does feel a little misleading and left