The latest addition to my website isSamantha Harvey‘s Orbital. The novel is set entirely on the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth (sixteen times a day), with a multinational (US, UK Italy Japan, Russia) crew of six. But don’t let that put you off, as it won the 2024 Booker Prize and deservedly … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jonathan Coe‘s The Proof of My Innocence.A blogger investigating right-wing plotting attends a right-wing conference the week LizTruss is appointed British Prime Minister and is brutally murdered at the conference. His adopted daughter and the daughter of one of his friends investigate and uncover dirty right-wing dealings, a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Noémi Kiss-Deáki‘s Mary and the Rabbit Dream. Noémi Kiss-Deáki is Finnish but writes in English. This book is set in early eighteenth-century England. It tells the story of the historical Mary Toft. After her fourth miscarriage, while her cervix was still open, enabling rabbit parts to be inserted … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hugh Lupton‘s The Ballad of John Clare. Hugh Lupton is a professional story-teller and, in his only novel, tells the tale of one year (1811-1812) in the life of nature poet John Clare. Clare came from a poor agricultural labouring background and we see him doing a variety … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Robert Irwin‘s Tom’s Version. This is a sort of follow-up to his previous book The Runes Have Been Cast but it stands on its own. The eponymous Tom meets Molly at an encounter group. Tom is an Irish would-be poet warehouse manager and somewhat naive. He gets unwittingly … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rupert Thomson‘s Dartmouth Park. Our narrator is Philip Notman, a fifty-something historian. At the beginning of the book he is attending a conference in Bergen, where he meets a fellow and younger academic, Inés. There is a spark but nothing happens. However on the way home he has … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rosemary Tonks‘ The Halt during the Chase. This novel wittily tells the story of a few eccentric characters in the London suburb of Hampstead in 1979. Our heroine/narrator is the thirty-one year old Sophie who has a decidedly ambiguous relationship with both her widowed mother and her not-quite … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Patrick Langley‘s The Variations. The book tells the story of people affected with the gift and the Agnes’s Hospice for Acoustically Gifted Children, which cares for them. The gift means that they can commune with the dead and are attuned to musical resonances (and are often talented musicians). However … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rosemary Tonks‘s The Bloater. This is a quirky comedy of manners. The heroine/narrator is Min who is married to George, with whom she hardly seems to have any contact. She is pursued by a much older man whom she prefers to keep as a friend and, during the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Patrick Langley‘s Arkady. This is a dystopian novel in a country that is much like Britain. Indeed, it was published five years ago and is looking more prescient today. Two young boys – Jackson and Frank – are on holiday in Spain with their parents. Their mother disappears … Read more