This week I look at books recently read and reflected upon, amble through some of the most compelling literary writing across the blogosphere, pause over earlier posts that merit another look, note a small constellation of notable dates (including Bookshop Day and Love Your Bookshop Day) and highlight a selection of engaging pieces from around the Internet.
This week I look back at books read and the conversations they’ve sparked, plough through a crop of compelling literary pieces from across the blogosphere, bring a few earlier posts back into view, unveil Spooktastic Reads 2026 and the 2026 Christmas Challenge, mark several annual observances (including European Day of Languages and the birthdays of T.S. Eliot, Jane Smiley and Irvine Welsh) and gather numerous features from around the Internet.
A razor sharp, wickedly humorous and surreal satire of a real life political scandal – reimagined within the claustrophobic walls of an English convent.
It’s a little late, but here, finally, is my contribution to Daphne du Maurier Reading Week.
Collaborative book blogging: my contribution to the 1965 Club.
I share my thoughts on a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
In a small English town of Hardborough Florence Green decides, against polite but determined opposition, to open a bookshop.
A splendidly inventive collection of short stories from Ali Smith, author of How to be both, winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize and the Costa Novel Award.
I share my thoughts on one of the most adored children’s novels of all time.
A cleverly inventive, well-crafted debut novel about loneliness and hope – set on an offshore windfarm in the near future.
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.
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?
Aldous Huxley’s ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterwork.
A vivid and perceptive book, which will probably appeal to readers of Robert Macfarlane, Roger Deakin and Olivia Laing.
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.
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.
My sixth and final day at Hay Festival 2018.
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.
Book Jotter is the fourth stop on Lev Parikian’s great Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? Blog Tour. Grab your bins and join in the fun!
It is 130 years since the publication of Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy, a novel about the unfulfilled lives of Victorian women. We look back at the short but controversial life of its author.