by NRB | 18 Dec 2014 | Fiction |
These stories infuse the everyday with the strange, the uncanny and an ever-present sense of threat. In those days, the doorbell didn’t ring often, and if it did I would draw back into the body of the house. The first sentence from ‘Sorry to Disturb’, which opens...
by NRB | 13 Nov 2014 | Fiction |
A novel of intrigue, heresy, violence and betrayal set in the turmoil of 16th-century England. Beginning with Dissolution in 2003, this the sixth book in Sansom’s highly successful Matthew Shardlake series of novels set in the reign of the second Tudor king – Henry...
by NRB | 2 Apr 2013 | Fiction |
A fascinating evocation of multiple lifetimes from this innovative and accomplished novelist. Kate Atkinson is known for her playfulness and writerly experimentation. In previous novels she has played with point of view (‘head-hopping’) with such confident...
by NRB | 17 Oct 2012 | Non-fiction |
The Tudors are endlessly fascinating. This new history examines the effects of one small family on a nation’s identity. Tudors, Volume II in Peter Ackroyd’s planned six-part history of England, has a different tone from that of Volume I, Foundation. In both...
JUNE WRIGHT Mother Paul series. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm6 December 2024June Wright has faded from view, but in 1948 her novel Murder in the Telephone [ … ]
ANDREW O’HAGAN Caledonian Road. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey5 December 2024This new novel from the author of Mayflies is set in London, but Glasgow is [ … ]
IAIN RYAN The Dream. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith3 December 2024Iain Ryan’s latest novel continues his fascination with 1980s Queensland and [ … ]
MARINA YUSZCZUK Thirst. Reviewed by Ann Skea28 November 2024Argentinian writer Marina Yuszczuk puts her twist on the vampire novel in [ … ]