After the Party – Cressida Connolly

This was a surprising book – not the story I thought I was going to get, but all the more interesting for it. Rather than being simply a Gatsby-esque exploration of beautiful lives being ruined by scandal (don’t get me wrong – I love that sort of story), this becomes something far more political and …

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood

Warning – contains spoilers… My relief at the fact that this is bloody good is immense. I’d disliked Oryx and Crake – and let’s not talk about The Year of the Flood – and I’d feared that she might go too far down that sort of route again. But, no. This is Gilead as we …

Re-Navigation by Sue Parritt #BlogTour

A gloomy seascape is of little consequence to Julia, as a ferry transports her to an isolated Welsh island to undertake a Spiritual Development course. Soon, Julia finds herself surrounded by new friends and questions. As relationships deepen, so does Julia’s feeling that something crucial is missing from her life. As passion ignites and deep-buried …

Lanny by Max Porter #BookerPrize2019

I love this time of year – the announcement of the Booker Longlist signals the onset of Autumn and gives me just the sort of challenge I like. Admittedly, I haven’t actually got round to reading last year’s winner yet, and I can never call it in terms of who should be shortlisted, but I …

Secrets of a Highland Warrior – Nicole Locke #BlogTour #LochmoreLegacy

‘… Rory’s eyes locked with hers and she knew he understood a fraction of a moment before she did how Lochmores could gain more without a fight. ‘All you need to is marry my daughter.’’ Locke’s Secrets of a Highland Warrior is a very satisfying conclusion to an excellent series. Locke has pulled together the …

Lissa Evans’ Old Baggage – simply marvellous.

Mattie Simpkin is a brilliant character. There’s been so much written on the fight for female emancipation, both in fiction and elsewhere, but Evans’ novel, set in 1928, is a moving and often very funny account of what a woman like Mattie, an ardent suffragette and unflagging campaigner for equality, does next. ‘Mattie wore her …

‘There She Blows’ – Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

Well, that was some read. I read quickly (it’s my only useful skill) and this has taken me weeks. It’s on a par with Richardson’s Clarissa in terms of the stamina required, but I’m glad I’ve read it - and unlike my experience with Richardson’s epic tome, I wasn’t being whipped along by the demands …

A Right Royal Face-Off by Simon Edge #BlogTour

Previous centuries, in my head at least, have very distinct identities. The 13th Century is bloody and muddy, the 16th Century is a rip-roaring adventure in all sorts of ways, and the 19th Century is earnestly tedious and a bit worthy. The ‘long’ 18th Century feels like the witty, clever century, and it is in …

West by Carys Davies

This is a perfect gem of a novel. Like some of the very best American tales (I guess I'm thinking Of Mice and Men here) less is certainly more, and Davies has packed a beautifully-told tale in 149 pages. Every sentence manages to be both spare and purposeful. Her quixotic protagonist, Cy Bellman, follows a …

Charlie Laidlaw’s The Space Between Time

As in his previous novel, The Things We Learn When We're Dead, Charlie Laidlaw has taken on both the intensely personal and big sweeping ideas about time and space, examining what it is to be human, and situating his narrator’s existence in North Berwick within a much wider cosmic scale. I very much enjoyed The …