Kirsty Hewitt
Elijah’s Mermaid, by Essie Fox
Reviewed on November 5, 2012
Elijah’s Mermaid is the second novel by British author Essie Fox, and follows her debut, The Somnambulist. As with the author’s first novel, Elijah’s Mermaid serves up a great slice of Victoriana to its readers. The first part of the book begins in 1850, with a delightfully Victorian-esque chapter title, and proceeds to tell the [...]
The Persephone Book of Short Stories
Reviewed on October 31, 2012
To celebrate Persephone Books’ one hundredth publication, the publishing house have issued a new volume of short stories, all of which have been written by female authors between 1909 and 1986. Of the included stories, ten are taken from volumes already published by Persephone, ten have been previously featured in their Biannually Magazine, and ten [...]
Flight Behaviour, by Barbara Kingsolver
Reviewed on October 29, 2012
Winner of the 2010 Orange Prize for her novel The Lacuna, Flight Behaviour is the newest offering from American author Barbara Kingsolver. The novel takes a single character as its focus, discontented Dellarobia Turnbow, ‘a woman with flame-colored hair who marched uphill to meet her demise’. She has been trapped upon a failing farm in [...]
Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland, by Sarah Moss
Reviewed on October 27, 2012
Sarah Moss, currently lecturing at Exeter University, has previously written two novels, Cold Earth and Night Waking. In 2009, she applied for a position as ‘an expert in nineteenth-century British literature’ at the University of Iceland on something of a ‘whim’, and consequently moved there with her young family. Names for the Sea: Strangers in [...]
These Wonderful Rumours!: A Young Schoolteacher’s Wartime Diaries, by May Smith
Reviewed on October 22, 2012
These Wonderful Rumours! is the wartime diary of May Smith, a young schoolteacher from Swadlincote, Derbyshire. When the Second World War is declared, she is twenty-four years old and living with her parents. The diary has been wonderfully preserved by Smith’s son, Duncan, and has an insightful introduction, written by social historian Juliet Gardiner. Gardiner [...]
There but for the, by Ali Smith
Reviewed on October 21, 2012
Ali Smith’s eighth published book, There but for the met with dazzling praise on its publication in 2011. Critics have heralded it ‘adventurous, intoxicating, dazzling’, ‘soaring, swooping’, ‘joyful, sparkling’ and ‘a real gem’. The mixture of quotes at the outset of the novel are as diverse and original in their choice as Smith’s unique writing [...]
Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children’s Nanny at the Turn of the Century, by Noel Streatfeild
Reviewed on October 20, 2012
Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children’s Nanny at the Turn of the Century is a non-fiction work by beloved children’s author Noel Streatfeild. First published in 1976, the book has been reissued by Virago Press. Tea by the Nursery Fire tells the story of real-life figure Emily Huckwell, who went into domestic service when [...]
John Saturnall’s Feast, by Lawrence Norfolk
Reviewed on October 18, 2012
John Saturnall’s Feast is the newest novel by acclaimed author Lawrence Norfolk. His three previous novels have been translated into twenty four languages in all, and fans of his work have waited for over a decade for this new literary offering. The novel begins in 1625 where, in the remote English village of Buckland, John [...]
Things We Left Unsaid, by Zoya Pirzad
Reviewed on October 17, 2012
Zoya Pirzad is a renowned Iranian-Armenian writer and novelist, who has published two novels and three short story collections. Things We Left Unsaid, first published in Iran in 2002, has recently been translated into English by Franklin Lewis. The novel uses the first person perspective of middle-aged housewife Clarice Ayvazian, who lives in the city [...]
The Whispering Muse, by Sjón
Reviewed on October 16, 2012
Sjón’s The Whispering Muse is more of a novella than a novel, filling just 143 pages. The author is a celebrated poet and novelist in his native Iceland, and his books have been translated into twenty five languages to date. The Whispering Muse won the award for best Icelandic novel in 2005, and has recently [...]
The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling
Reviewed on October 13, 2012
The Casual Vacancy is, without a doubt, the most hotly anticipated release of 2012. Over one million copies of the novel were pre-ordered, and the book has met with some contention from both readers and critics just days after its release. Rowling’s first novel for adults aims to break away from the seemingly unshakeable Harry [...]
Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England, by Sarah Wise
Reviewed on October 4, 2012
Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England is marketed as Sarah Wise’s ‘engrossing and most ambitious work yet’. The book aims to ‘revaluate our image of mental health and society in the nineteenth century’, and is said to be ‘both page turning and scholarly’. Wise has set out to show twelve true [...]
Sea of Ink, by Richard Weihe
Reviewed on October 3, 2012
Fifty one short chapters make up Richard Weihe’s Sea of Ink, translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch. The novella, complete with many wonderful pictures, portrays the life of Bada Shanren, ‘one of the most influential Chinese painters of all times’. The book sets out the tumultuous history of the period in the first chapters, [...]
The Fairies Return or, New Tales for Old, by Peter Davies
Reviewed on October 2, 2012
Originally published in 1934, The Fairies Return or, New Tales for Old was the first volume of modernist fairytales printed in Great Britain. Peter Llewelyn Davies, the adoptive son of famous author J.M. Barrie, was its original compiler. The stories in the collection have been ‘retold for modern times and mature sensibilities’, and all of [...]
The Murder of Halland, by Pia Juul
Reviewed on October 1, 2012
The Murder of Halland, written by Denmark’s ‘foremost literary author’ Pia Juul, is a lovely new addition to the Peirene Press family. First published in Denmark in 2009, the novella has won Denmark’s most prestigious literary prize, Danske Banks Litteraturpris. This English edition has been translated by Martin Aitken. The Murder of Halland is told [...]
A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In, by Magnus Mills
Reviewed on September 30, 2012
A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In has been hailed as ‘quirky, curious and very funny’, ‘an enchantingly surreal Kafkaesque/philosophical fairy tale’ and ‘a masterpiece’. These accolades are set to attract a wealth of different readers to Booker Prize shortlisted author Magnus Mills’ latest novel. A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest [...]
The Misunderstanding, by Irène Némirovsky
Reviewed on September 28, 2012
Irène Némirovsky’s first novel, The Misunderstanding, was written when she was twenty-one years old and published in a literary journal two years later in 1926. The book presents a ‘tragic satire of French society after the Great War’. The Misunderstanding has been newly published in English this year. Denise Jessaint and Yves Harteloup are the [...]
The Wine of Solitude, by Irène Némirovsky
Reviewed on September 28, 2012
The Wine of Solitude is one of Jewish Ukrainian author Irène Némirovsky’s earliest novels. The author, whose family fled from Russia to France in 1918, was tragically killed in Auschwitz in 1942. She is best known for her book Suite Francaise, a collection of her memoirs compiled by her daughters, which was first published in [...]
The Girl You Left Behind, by Jojo Moyes
Reviewed on September 27, 2012
Author Jojo Moyes is best known for her 2011 novel Me Before You. Indeed, the first few pages of her latest book, The Girl You Left Behind, are crammed with its reviews. Her newest offering evidently has a lot to live up to. The Girl You Left Behind is split into two sections, and opens [...]
Ravenscliffe, by Jane Sanderson
Reviewed on September 24, 2012
Ravenscliffe is the standalone sequel to Jane Sanderson’s debut novel Netherwood. The novel has been publicised as ‘perfect for readers of Kate Morton and Rachel Hore, as well as fans of period dramas like Downton Abbey’. Ravenscliffe opens in Yorkshire in 1904, in a small town named Netherwood. The story begins with a very well [...]
The Colour of Milk, by Nell Leyshon
Reviewed on September 20, 2012
The Colour of Milk tells the heartrending tale of fifteen-year-old Mary. Her story takes place over a relatively short period of time, beginning in the spring of 1830 and spanning only four seasons. The daughter of a ferocious and incredibly violent farmhand and his wife, who is happy to stand by and watch as her [...]
Night Dancer, by Chika Unigwe
Reviewed on September 19, 2012
Night Dancer has rather an impressive scope, spanning fifty years of Nigerian history. The novel opens in Enugu in 2001 and follows a young woman named Mma. Unigwe’s prose makes her situation apparent from the outset. Her parents separated when she was just a baby and, despite the presence of serious boyfriend Obi, she is [...]
The Forrests, by Emily Perkins
Reviewed on September 18, 2012
The Forrests is Emily Perkins’ fourth novel. It opens with the Forrest family, with particular focus placed upon the middle daughter, Dorothy. The Forrest family – mother and father Lee and Frank, son Michael and three daughters, Evelyn, Dorothy and Ruthie – have just moved from ‘oh my god the hub of the world’ New [...]
Bloomsbury & Fitzrovia Through Time, by Brian Girling
Reviewed on September 16, 2012
Bloomsbury & Fitzrovia Through Time is the newest offering from author Brian Girling. It follows similar volumes which have been published in Amberley’s Through Time series on other areas of London and its suburbs, including Paddington, Marylebone and Harrow. This volume sets out to show how the west-central London districts of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia have [...]
Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol
Reviewed on September 16, 2012
Hailed by prolific author Neil Gaiman as ‘a masterpiece’, Anya’s Ghost is Russian-American author Vera Brosgol’s first graphic novel. High-school student Annushka Borzakovskaya, or Anya as she is more commonly known, is the main protagonist in Anya’s Ghost. On the first morning depicted in the novel, Anya decides not to go to school. She wanders [...]
The Vanishing Act, by Mette Jakobsen
Reviewed on September 11, 2012
Danish-born author Mette Jakobsen’s first book, The Vanishing Act, was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize. The novel is intriguing and powerful from the first sentence: ‘It was snowing the morning I found the dead boy’. With this, we are catapulted into the life of thirteen-year-old Minou, who lives with her father upon a [...]
The Comic Strip Book of Dinosaurs, by Tracey Turner, Sally Kindberg (Illustrator)
Reviewed on September 10, 2012
Tracey Turner is rather a prolific children’s author. Her new offering, The Comic Strip Book of Dinosaurs, joins several other illustrated books in Bloomsbury’s ‘Comic Strip’ series. In her new book, Turner aims to present ‘the world of dinosaurs as it’s never been seen before’. The book itself is incredibly informative, presenting a wealth of [...]
Tigers in Red Weather, by Liza Klaussmann
Reviewed on September 2, 2012
Tigers in Red Weather begins on the east coast of America in September 1945, just after the end of the Second World War. Cousins Nick and Helena have grown up spending a long spring of summers at Tiger House, the family’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard, a place which both women hold fondly in their memories. [...]
The Absolutist, by John Boyne
Reviewed on August 29, 2012
The Absolutist begins in Norwich in September 1919, a period in which the country is still coming to terms with the aftermath of the First World War. The novel’s opening line is both gripping and intriguing: ‘Seated opposite me in the railway carriage, the elderly lady in the fox-fur shawl was recalling some of the [...]
We Sinners, by Hanna Pylvainen
Reviewed on August 20, 2012
We Sinners is Hanna Pylvainen’s debut novel. It opens with the character of Brita Rovaniemi as she is asked to a dance by Jude Palmer, a classmate who is ‘tall and heavy with dark hair’. Due to her family dynamic, Brita reluctantly declines the offer and then spends the rest of the school year trying [...]
Toby’s Room, by Pat Barker
Reviewed on August 16, 2012
Toby’s Room is the newest novel by Booker Prize winning author Pat Barker, best known for her Regeneration trilogy. The novel opens in the summer of 1912 with a young woman named Elinor Brooke, who has returned to her childhood home from her lodgings in London. Intent on becoming a painter, she has been living [...]
Genie and Paul, by Natasha Soobramanien
Reviewed on August 15, 2012
Natasha Soobramanien was the winner of the Bridport Prize’s short story category in 2009. Genie and Paul, billed as an ‘imaginative reworking of the French 18th century classic, Paul et Virginie’ by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, is her debut novel. Genie and Paul opens in March 2003 with the aftermath of a tropical cyclone, Kalunde, which [...]
The Fabled Coast, by Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood
Reviewed on August 12, 2012
Folklore is still inherently entrenched into life in the United Kingdom and, indeed, in a vast number of countries and communities on an international scale. The introduction of The Fabled Coast: Legends and Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain and Ireland states that ‘… the coastline of the British Isles plays host to an [...]
Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling, by Michael Boccacino
Reviewed on August 8, 2012
Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling, billed as ‘a Victorian Gothic tale’, is American author Michael Boccacino’s debut novel. The story takes place in a country home named Everton on the edge of the English village of Blackfield. The story opens with ‘the dance of the dead’, in which we are introduced to the [...]
The Book Lover’s Tale, by Ivo Stourton
Reviewed on August 3, 2012
The Book Lover’s Tale focuses heavily on the book’s first person narrator, Matt de Voy, who lives in central London. Matt is an interior designer who, alongside his wife Cecilia, works solely for the rich and revered. The retrospective prologue of the novel seems a little stylistically confused, particularly with regard to the rest of [...]
Complete Short Stories, by Elizabeth Taylor
Reviewed on August 2, 2012
Elizabeth Taylor is heralded as ‘one of the best novelists born in this [the twentieth] century’ by prolific author Kingsley Amis. Her work seems to be enjoying a sudden surge in popularity of late. Every short story which the author wrote over her career – 65 in all – has been placed together in this [...]
Art in Nature and Other Stories, by Tove Jansson
Reviewed on July 27, 2012
Sort Of Books, who have already published five of Tove Jansson’s adult novels and story collections, as well as several of her Moomin books, have just released this new volume of her short stories, all of which are printed in English for the first time. The entire book has been translated by Thomas Teal, who [...]
I Am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovits
Reviewed on July 26, 2012
I Am Forbidden is the first of Anouk Markovits’ books to be written in English. The novel opens in Szatmár, Transylvania, on the eve of the ‘five un-photographable years’ of the Second World War. We are introduced to the character of Zalman Stern, a very devout Jew, who was ‘not only a wonder of Torah [...]
Abdication, by Juliet Nicolson
Reviewed on July 22, 2012
Abdication is the first work of fiction by historian Juliet Nicolson. The novel is set in a turbulent time, in which Edward VIII has been crowned as the new king of England after the death of his predecessor George V. This was a period in which Oswald Mosley’s fascist party was deemed to be on [...]
The House I Loved, by Tatiana de Rosnay
Reviewed on July 18, 2012
Tatiana de Rosnay is best known for her novel Sarah’s Key, which was first published in 2006. The author was named one of the top 10 fiction writers in Europe in 2010, data based upon the analysis of bestseller charts across several European countries. Her newest novel, The House I Loved, opens in Paris in [...]
Shelter, by Frances Greenslade
Reviewed on July 15, 2012
Shelter takes place in Duchess Creek in British Columbia, Canada’s most westerly province. It begins during the 1960s and spans a period of several years. Shelter is told from the first person perspective of Margaret Dillon, known throughout as Maggie. The narrative is retrospective and the more sinister events of the novel are foreshadowed as [...]
Challenge, by Vita Sackville-West
Reviewed on July 11, 2012
Intended as ‘a romantic adventure story’, Challenge was Vita Sackville-West’s second work of fiction and was completed in 1920. It follows her first novel, Heritage, which had ‘met with unusual acclaim’ according to her son. Due to personal turmoil – the author’s affair with Violet Trefusis reaching its ‘peak’ – however, Challenge was not published [...]
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente
Reviewed on June 30, 2012
Catherynne M. Valente is rather a prolific author of children’s fantasy and science fiction novels and will be publishing the sequel to this novel – The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There – in 2013. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making was the winner of [...]
An Academic Question, by Barbara Pym
Reviewed on June 29, 2012
Virago have recently reprinted several of Barbara Pym’s novels with new introductions by a selection of different authors, all of whom are avid fans of her work. The introduction of An Academic Question, first published posthumously in 1986, has been written by novelist Kate Saunders, who believes the book to be ‘witty, sharp, light as [...]
Equal of the Sun, by Anita Amirrezvani
Reviewed on June 28, 2012
Equal of the Sun is set in sixteenth-century Iran. The novel is loosely based upon the life of Princess Pari Khan Khanum, who, according to an essay written by Shohreh Gholsorkhi in Iranian Studies, was a ‘masterful Safavid princess’. The narrator, Javaher, who believes himself to be one of Pari’s ‘closest’ servants, is intent upon [...]
So Far Away: A Novel, by Meg Mitchell Moore
Reviewed on June 20, 2012
So Far Away is American author Meg Mitchell Moore’s second novel. It takes place in and around Boston, Massachusetts. The story opens with the event which causes the two main characters to meet. Natalie Gallagher, a 13-year-old girl with ‘long orangey red hair, and skin that was nearly transparent’ enters the Historical Archives in which [...]
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, by Simon Mawer
Reviewed on June 11, 2012
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is Simon Mawer’s ninth novel. The author was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2009 for The Glass Room. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is inspired by 39 women who were trained as secret agents by the French section of the Special Operations Executive between [...]
The Last Summer, by Judith Kinghorn
Reviewed on June 8, 2012
The Last Summer is Judith Kinghorn’s debut novel. It is told from the first person perspective of Clarissa Granville. The story begins in the summer of 1914 when she is just sixteen years old. Clarissa states from the outset that the ‘spell’ of her languorous childhood was broken as soon as she laid eyes upon [...]
Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby, by Vera Brittain
Reviewed on June 7, 2012
Testament of Friendship: The Story of Winifred Holtby was written in 1939 and first published in 1940. In this recently Virago reprint, Vera Brittain ‘tells the story of the woman who helped her survive the aftermath of that war’. Brittain is perhaps best known for her first volume of autobiography, Testament of Youth, which detailed [...]
A Writer’s Diary, by Virginia Woolf
Reviewed on June 1, 2012
A Writer’s Diary was first published posthumously in 1953 and is one of Persephone’s new reprints for Spring 2012. The book is composed of extracts from Virginia Woolf’s thirty diaries, unpublished at the time of its original publication. Each extract has been carefully selected by her husband Leonard, whose idea was ‘to extract those entries [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Mark Oldfield
Mark Oldfield has worked in criminological research for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Kent and has carried out research in the areas of risk assessment and prediction and as well as evaluative research on policing, prisons and probation. He has also taught in various Universities on research, crime and criminal justice.
