“We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.”
George Eliot’s epigraph hangs over every page of Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s A British Childhood, a book published as his tenure as UK Children’s Laureate draws to a close. It is his first book written for adults, although for decades, whether as a novelist, screenwriter, creator of beloved children’s stories or architect of unforgettable national moments, Cottrell-Boyce has been working towards this.
Drawing on hundreds of visits to schools during his laureateship, he paints a ... View Full Review
There are books that arrive at exactly the right moment in life, and there are books that give you permission to rewrite the story you've been telling yourself. Namaste Motherf*ckers is firmly in the latter camp.
Part memoir, part manifesto and part rallying cry, comedian, broadcaster and former media executive Cally Beaton's debut book is a refreshingly honest exploration of reinvention, resilience and what happens when you stop asking for permission and start backing yourself. Drawing on her own journey from boardroom executive to stand-up comedian, Beaton challenges the tired narrative that midlife is a period of decline and ... View Full Review
Having enjoyed the Mancaruso sisters’ debut Rumoured, I was delighted to discover that Scandal is every bit as sharp and addictive a thriller. Once again, they pull back the curtain on the dark underbelly of fame and celebrity culture, but this time it’s the world of professional football - and their WAGs.
Five years after surviving a horrific attack in a holiday cottage in Sherwood Forest that left two of her best friends dead, Kaleigh Creedy appears to have built the perfect life. Married to AFC Nottingham captain and England striker Harry Turner, the former Miss Teen ... View Full Review
Opening with Louisa May Alcott’s plea, “Don’t try to make me grow up before my time”, Daisy Buchanan creates a clever, tender, modern homage to the March sisters, set in another world, another time, another universe - but carrying all the emotional truth of the original.
At the heart of the story is Louisa, a 49-year-old mother of four grown-up daughters, facing her first Christmas alone. Her birthday falls on Christmas Eve, but the bar for celebration is painfully low. After decades of giving everything to her family - “not even a thought&... View Full Review
Dolly All the Time is one of those romances that sneaks up on you. What begins as a breezy summer fake-dating story becomes something far richer - a tender exploration of responsibility, family, love, grief, and what it means to finally allow yourself to be cared for.
Dolly Brick is the queen of the side hustle. Kindergarten teacher, Uber driver, seller of weighted vests, emotional caretaker, family fixer - she is the person everyone leans on. Ever since her mother left, Dolly has stepped into the role of holding everything together, especially for her father Freddie, owner of the Brick ... View Full Review
Kirsten King’s A Good Person gives us one of the most gloriously toxic narrators I’ve read in a long time. Lillian is the kind of protagonist who is impossible to defend and equally impossible to look away from: lonely, self-obsessed, chronically online, sexually liberated, emotionally unavailable and convinced she’s the smartest, most interesting, most self-aware person in every room while demonstrating the exact opposite on nearly every page.
Henry Davies is charming, educated, handsome in a “soft Boston 7” sort of way, and full of potential. Their relationship burns hot until Henry invites ... View Full Review
The Usual Desire to Kill drops us into the lives of Miranda’s parents, who inhabit a crumbling manoir in rural France alongside two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer stocked with food dating back to 1983.
The house itself, with its layers of grime and slow decay, feels like a metaphor for them both: enduring, deteriorating, and impossible to abandon.
Her parents have been married for fifty years (twenty of them spent in France), and are immovably set in their ways: stubbornness meets pedantry in a long-running marital stalemate that teeters between irritation and ... View Full Review
This deliciously dark, high-concept thriller drops us into the glossy, unsettling world of Love Synced – a reality TV phenomenon where hopeful romantics surrender their hearts to an algorithm promising the perfect match. No glass slippers required, just a wrist-strapped AI assistant - CILLA, the so-called “AI fairy godmother” searching for your soulmate with chilling certainty.
Hazel, a waitress from south of the river, never expected to find herself cast opposite Marc Van Batten, an obscenely wealthy heir with an insufferable, image-obsessed family. Their whirlwind romance is engineered for maximum spectacle: meet, marry, and fall in love in ... View Full Review
Set on the eerie edge of a vast Australian forest, The Final Chapter is a chilling psychological thriller that lingers long after the last page. The novel centres on Thorne House - now rebranded as the Rhamnusia Writers’ House - a remote creative retreat with a dark and violent past. Once home to the ill-fated Thorne family, and located in territory haunted by the legacy of notorious serial killer Byron Djokovic, the house carries an atmosphere thick with dread, memory and myth.
When Desley arrives, having won a coveted residency, the reality is far from the elegant escape she ... View Full Review
Set between Boston and Dublin and spanning decades, The Truth About Ruby Cooper explores how one devastating incident can fracture lives beyond repair - and how survival can demand a lifetime of reckoning.
Ruby Cooper and her sister Erin grew up in what appears to be an idyllic, close-knit church community in Boston. Their world feels secure, structured, safe. It's a privileged upbringing. That's until, at sixteen, Ruby is involved in a shocking incident that causes everything to implode. From that moment on, the family is split down the middle, trust disintegrates and the sisters’ bond is tested in ... View Full Review
When I first read The Squiggly Career, it really spoke to me, and so I was excited to hear about the latest book from Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis - Learn Like a Lobster. And I’m so glad I got my grubby little hands on it.
The idea is simple: lobsters never stop growing. They grow through hard moments, and those moments fuel their development. The same can be true for us as learners.
Most of us know learning matters, in the same way we know reading matters. The real challenge is finding the time. People often ask ... View Full Review
Dinah Newman stands in her pristine Toluca Lake kitchen, burning dinner for her husband Del despite shelves lined with cookbooks. The irony is delicious: the most famous cook in America, spokesperson for Hotpoint appliances and Pyrex cookware, can’t feed her own family.
For twenty years, 20 million Americans have gathered at 8:30pm to join the Newmans - first on CBS Radio, then on television. America’s favourite couple. The perfect family. But after 23 years of marriage, they’re sleeping in separate beds. Money troubles simmer. Their sons - steady Guy, 22, and craftier Shep, 17 - circle the fractures.
... View Full Review
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