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Cover of first edition of Repent in Haste. There was a time when John P. Marquand was considered the best novelist of manners in America, even — according to a Chicago Sun review quoted on …

There are some books so raw with emotion that it is almost painful to read them: My Name is Million is one of these. Published anonymously in 1940, it is a memoir of the terrifying …

My ‘Unnecessary Rankings!‘ series have quickly become my favourite blog posts to write, and I love reading your comments – sometimes in agreement, but usually not, and that’s the most fun. Of all the authors …

Review by Rob Spence This is a curious little book, which shouldn’t really work, but does, offering the reader a delightful series of fresh impressions gleaned from the writer’s engagement with Italy, and in particular …

The longlist for the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been announced today! Thanks to this prize, I have discovered lots of great books and authors and always look out for the longlists …

By Margaret Bennett I recently spent a few days in Italy, in the city of Bologna. One of Bologna’s nicknames is ‘Bologna la Dotta’ or ‘Bologna the Learned’, as it houses the oldest university in …

Sheila Gear’s Foula. Island West of the Sun (originally published in 1983) is a new edition of a timeless memoir of life on a croft on Foula, an island 20 miles or four hours’ rowing …

On the Ramblings today I’m happy to be kicking off a blog tour for a favourite indie publisher – Melville House. Their books have featured on the Ramblings many times, most recently last July, when …

Dead on Time by Clifford Witting This is a classic Clifford Witting novel, and happily it is one of several republished by Galileo Press so it is possible to compare and contrast his writing. This …

With the announcement of this year’s International Booker Prize longlist just around the corner, my mind is turning towards books that might make the cut, and today’s choice is one I think has a pretty …

Last week, my mother and I attended an author event at Boston College featuring Celeste Ng, which we enjoyed. BC has a freshman seminar in which many read Ng’s first novel, Everything I Never Told …

Having decided to read Margaret Drabble novels in 2024, I have already failed to review one of them. In January I read A Summer Bird Cage and The Garrick Year, but I didn’t manage to …

Bright Intervals was Eileen Helen Clements' second novel. Her first, Let Him Die, had appeared the year before, her first mystery and the introduction to her series detective Alister Woodhead, who would subsequently appear in …

Nicholas Blake was the penname for Cecil Day-Lewis, and I don’t think it is stretching credulity too much to regard today’s mystery under review, as a story which was rooted in or at least inspired …