Books

Why does everyone like East of Eden so much?

A beautiful book, written in a determinedly readable style, is bound to become popular, not to mention the endless power of nostalgia.

Books Abigail Riley -

Seasonal reads: On childhood hobbies, growing up, and guilt

Reconnecting with reading is something many people tend to do on a summer holiday,...

Books Elizabeth Gammaidoni -

Diverse voices: ‘Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah’ by Miljenko Jergović

‘When he created Earth and these lands upon it, when he divided people into...

Books Abigail Riley -

YA Thrills: Escapism and disguise

An issue that has been encountered by authors since the dawn of time, perhaps one that feels too obvious to even state, is that some readers will not enjoy their books.

Books Elizabeth Gammaidoni -

Latest

Menial Heroics

Reviewing Sayaka Murata's 'Convenience Store Woman' (Granta, 2019)

Reclaiming the Moment

A review of Lavinia Greenlaw's 'The Built Moment' (Faber and Faber, 2019)

The Funny/Not Funny Exercise

A review of David Sedaris' 'Calypso' (Little, Brown, 2018)

Troy Story Revisited

Reviewing Pat Barker’s ‘The Silence of the Girls’ (Penguin, 2018).

Going Wilde in America

“Audiences deserted his lectures, Harvard students mocked his outfits, and his failures left him drunk and dejected." Reviewing Michele Mendelssohn's 'Making Oscar Wilde'.

The New Bridget Jones?

Reviewing ‘Queenie’ by Candice Carty-Williams (Trapeze, 2019).

An Old War in a New Light

Reviewing ‘Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy’ by Max Hastings (Harper, 2018).

In Search of a Poet

Exploring the history and the hype behind the role of the Oxford Professor of Poetry

‘In Search of Equillibrium’

A review of Theresa Lola’s debut poetry collection (Nine Arches Press, 2019).

The Power of Telling Tales in Ali Smith’s ‘Spring’

'This third instalment in Smith’s quartet is perhaps the best yet; a novel for our times that asks all the right questions of the current climate, but also of itself. '

The ‘happily ever after’ we seek only exists in fiction

Reading stories full of delusions allows us to escape from the modern world

The Intricacies of Married Life

Exploring the themes of illict love, friendship and bereavement in Tessa Hadley’s 'Late in the Day'.

Thinking Through The Flesh

A review of Lidia Yuknavitch's new memoir, The Chronology of Water.

The Consolation of ‘Constellations’

A review of Sinéad Gleeson's new memoir.

‘If We Were Villains’: Caught in long shadow of ‘The Secret History’

Does M.L Rio's debut novel prioritise style over substance?

Reflective Awakenings

The Victorian period was one defined by immense social change - especially in regards to women’s position in society. Throughout the century, increasing debate...