Book Review Archives | Page 2 of 4

Lies At Her Door, A A Abbott (Perfect City Press, 2022)

Lies at Her Door is a psychological thriller set in one of the more affluent parts of affluent Clifton in Bristol. As a Bristolian, I enjoyed the setting and recognising …

None So Blind, Alis Hawkins (Canelo, 2021, first published 2018)

Between 1839 and 1843, the Rebecca rioters of west Wales rode out at night to tear down toll gates and make their protest against the high tolls charged on the …

Gallows Wake: The Sixth Voyage of Jesamiah Acorne by Helen Hollick

Gallows Wake: The Sixth Voyage of Jesamiah Acorne by Helen Hollick Earlier this month, Gallows Wake dropped anchor at Scriblerus as part of a blog tour. In a guest blog, …

Mrs Fischer’s War, Henrietta Leslie (Jarrolds, 1930) (Gladys Schütze)

Mrs Fischer’s War tells the story of a married couple, Carl and Janet Fischer, during the First World War. Carl was born in Germany but to escape a stern father …

The Ben the Tramp Novels of J Jefferson Farjeon

I took plenty of books on holiday with me this summer and enjoyed them all. Even so, I couldn’t resist looking at the small library at the property we stayed …

Julia Prima by Alison Morton: Pagans v Christians

Julia Prima, Alison Morton (Pulcheria Press, 2022) Alison Morton is the inventor of Roma Nova, a small but influential state (about the size of Luxembourg) founded in AD395 by 400 …

My Month in Books: June 2022

The only thing the books I’ve written about this month have in common is that I loved them both! So from epic fantasy to grounded-in-gritty reality historical fiction, here are …

My Month in Books May 2022

The books I’ve selected this month are The Writer’s Tale, a “tell-all” discussion of Russell T Davies’s creative life, with lots of fascinating insights into how Dr Who is made. …

My Month in Books: April 2022

The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey (Soho Crime, 2018) The Widows of Malabar Hill is the first book in the 1920s mystery series featuring Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first and …

My Month in Books: March 2022

I look at two stories of twentieth-century working-class lives this month – Raymond Williams’s 1960 novel, Border Country, and Dorothy Whipple’s High Wages. Williams explore the lives of a family …

My Month in Books: February 2022

Latchkey Ladies, Marjorie Grant (Handheld Press 2022, first published 1921) The work women did during the First World War, when many moved into occupations formerly carried out by …

My Month in Books: January 2022

My selections for this month are two wonderful novels which, though set in very different milieus, both explore themes of marriage, family and powerlessness: Feet in Chains by Kate Roberts, …