Book news, reviews and recommendations
Perhaps the most famous recent fictionalisation of a life is Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell but I’ve chosen some less well known examples for this post. Below are five novels based on real lives, all with links to reviews on this blog, beginning with one by a writer who excels at this form of fiction. I’ve […]
Five Fictionalisations of Real Lives I’ve Read Read More »
The first part of May’s paperback preview had a strong thematic link running through it. Nothing so clear cut with the second, beginning with Jill Dawson’s The Bewitching, the first title I spotted in what seems to have become a publishing witch-lit trend. It takes us back to the sixteenth century, a time of superstition
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2023: Part Two Read More »
Jill Dawson incorporates historical figures and events into much of her fiction, often giving them a slightly subversive spin. Her last novel, The Language of Birds, explored the Lord Lucan case from the perspective of the nanny he murdered, neatly redressing the balance of the aristocracy-obsessed media’s coverage which seemed to have forgotten there was
The Bewitching by Jill Dawson: ‘Is there any reason you should not be hanged?’ Read More »
July see the summer reading season in full swing for publishers with lots of novels aimed at entertaining readers by the pool. Unusually for me, I’m beginning with one that fits that bill well. Liza Klaussmann’s This is Gonna End in Tears is set in the summer of 1984 when a few chickens come home
Books to Look Out For in July 2022: Part One 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 – From Rules of Civility to The Light at the End of the Day Read More »
April’s paperback preview falls neatly into two parts – those I’ve already read and those I’ve yet to read. I’m beginning with the former, the first four of which were on my last year’s books of the year list. Hard to know which one to kick off with but I’m plumping for Ann Patchett’s The
Paperbacks to Look Out For in April 2020: Part One Read More »
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of my favourite UK literary award, The Women’s Prize for Fiction. I still remember being excited at the prospect of this prize when it was first announced and my delight when Helen Dunmore’s A Spell in Winter was the inaugural winner of what was then called the Orange Prize.
My Wishlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 Read More »
Early summer, which seems so very long ago now, was packed with literary goodies for me, particularly May which began with A Stranger City, Linda Grant’s portrayal of a post-referendum London through a set of disparate characters brought together by their connection with a woman whose body has been pulled from the Thames. Each character’s
Books of the Year 2019: Part Two Read More »
Another year, another Man Booker Prize longlist in the offing, except this year its reverted to the Booker Prize, thanks to a change of sponsorship with Crankstart stepping into the funding breach as of June 1st this year. To be eligible for the prize all books must be published in the UK between October 1st
My 2019 (Man) Booker Wish List Read More »
I’m a fan of Jill Dawson’s writing. Her last novel, The Crime Writer, was a wonderful piece of literary fan fiction, a perverse love letter to Patricia Highsmith. However, when I read that The Language of Birds was based on the notorious Lord Lucan affair I dismissed it. I’m old enough to have seen far
The Language of Birds by Jill Dawson: Lord Lucan – the nanny’s story Read More »
Fewer titles than usual to whet my appetite in April, enough for just one longish post kicking off with Jill Dawson’s The Language of Birds. Dawson frequently uses historical figures in her fiction and this time it’s the turn of the notorious Lord Lucan. In 1974, Mandy River arrives at her new job as a
Books to Look Out for in April 2019 Read More »