Imagined by Oscar Wilde’s own grandson, this fictionalised conversation presents a fascinating biography of the poet, playwright and gay martyr.
Book Review
BOOK REVIEW: Doggerland
A cleverly inventive, well-crafted debut novel about loneliness and hope – set on an offshore windfarm in the near future.
THOUGHTS ON: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
We look back at a powerful memoir exploring death, illness, marriage and memory from an iconic American writer.
BOOK REVIEW: Murder by the Book: The crime that shocked Victorian literary London
A gripping investigation into a crime that scandalized literary London.
BOOK REVIEW: The Cake Tree in the Ruins
A necessarily brief review (I’m posting this from a sandy beach in Cyprus) of a dark but inventive short story collection set on 15th August 1945 – the day Japan surrendered and the Second World War formerly ended.
THOUGHTS ON: Autumn (Seasonal #1)
Daniel is a century old. Elisabeth, born in 1984, has her eye on the future. The United Kingdom is in pieces, divided by a historic once-in-a-generation summer.
BOOK REVIEW: Green Almonds: Letters from Palestine
A glimpse into a complex situation through the eyes of a naive young woman who discovers a country, makes friends, falls in love and is confronted with the plight of the Palestinians.
BOOK REVIEW: Where the World Ends
In the summer of 1727, a party of men and boys are put ashore on a remote sea stac to harvest birds for food. No one returns to collect them. How will they survive?
BOOK REVIEW: An Untouched House
A short but shocking Dutch war classic by a writer who has drawn comparisons to Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut.
BOOK REVIEW: Home is Nearby
Magdalena McGuire’s debut novel is a vivid and intimate exploration of a young woman’s struggle to find her place in the world.
BOOK REVIEW: The Silence of the Girls
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war comes a reimagining of the most famous conflict in literature – the legendary Trojan War.
BOOK REVIEW: The Beekeeper of Sinjar
Dunya Mikhail tells the harrowing but often moving stories of women who have managed to escape the clutches of ISIS.
BOOK REVIEW: Disbanded Kingdom
A 21st-century coming-of-age story, set against the emotive backdrop of the United Kingdom’s breakaway from the European Union and its threatened rupture with Scotland.
THOUGHTS ON: The Little Prince
A moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language.
THOUGHTS ON: 24 Stories: of Hope for Survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire
We look at an anthology of short stories written on themes of community and hope by a mix of the UK’s best known writers and previously unpublished authors, whose pieces were chosen by Kathy Burke from over 250 entries.
BOOK REVIEW: The Brontë Family: Passionate Literary Geniuses
An immensely enjoyable biography of the Brontë sister’s unconventional lives, astounding literary talents and tragic deaths.
BOOK REVIEW: Bottled Goods
Set in 1970s communist Romania, this novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles in an authoritarian state.
BOOK REVIEW: Ghost Wall
Young Silvie, along with her mother and abusive father, are in a remote Northumberland camp as an exercise in experiential archaeology. Sarah Moss’s forthcoming novel has much to say about female affinity and friendship.
BOOK REVIEW: Orchid & the Wasp
A dark but highly amusing coming-of-age story, which encompasses sexuality, mental health, class, religion and contemporary politics. Caoilinn Hughes has written a stunningly ambitious debut novel.
THOUGHTS ON: ‘Scoop: A Novel About Journalists’
Described as “a brilliantly irreverent satire of Fleet Street and its hectic pursuit of hot news”, I was unfortunately unable to connect with Scoop – one of Evelyn Waugh’s most popular novels.