Book news, reviews and recommendations
It’s almost longlist time for the Women’s Prize for Fiction although it hardly seems five minutes since the last one. Wednesday March 4th is the date to add your diary. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st, 2025, and March 31st, 2026, qualify. I’ve followed the same format as previous years, […]
My Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026 Wish List Read More »
April marks the real start of spring here in the UK although it appears on my horizon when the herons start doing a bit of DIY on their nests which I always stop to watch on one of my regular walks. This year, I found myself packing for summer for our Ghent break in late
Books of the Year 2025: Part Two 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 been so impressed by Wendy Erskine’s quietly brilliant short story collection, Dance Move, that I jumped at the chance to read her debut novel. Set in Belfast, The Benefactors follows the fallout from the rape of a young woman by three boys she’d thought were her friends. Being with their mum felt like when
The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine: Family first Read More »
I’ve read all but two from June’s first batch of new fiction beginning with a novel I snapped up as soon as it appeared on NetGalley. Boogie was only eighteen when their rackety mother left her two daughters with him in Wendy Erksine’s The Benefactors. He raised them both, never distinguishing between Misty and his
Books to Look Out For in June 2025: Part One Read More »
Lots of paperback goodies to look out for this February, several tried and tested by me beginning with Louise Welsh’s The Second Cut, published twenty years after her brilliant debut, The Cutting Room, starred the unforgettable Rilke, given to dicey sexual encounters in Glasgow parks by night, mixing with morally dubious individuals in his job
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2023: Part One Read More »
This year continued the move back towards normality for me. H and I finally managed to take both the holidays abroad we’d booked for 2020 and there was much more socialising and getting out and about. We’re going to the cinema again (easy to lose touch when you don’t see the trailers) but I’ve realised
Books of the Year 2022: Part One Read More »
February’s first instalment kicked off with a highly anticipated novel as does this one. Monica Ali’s Love Marriage sees Yasmin engaged to a fellow doctor and looking forward to a bright future. Her family’s reaction to her prospective mother-in-law’s feminism sparks revelations and a reassessment by Yasmin of her family and what her marriage might
Books to Look Out for in February 2022: Part Two Read More »