This was a surprisingly difficult novel to review because while aspects of it captivated me I was in some ways left unsatisfied. I was initially sold on trying it due to the 'family saga' angle which is absolute catnip to me and I thought Jackson did a fantastic job of creating a family that was both recognisable and unique.

This book was an absolute surprise to me. It's not really like anything else I've read before although it absolutely has notes of other books I've loved including Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss and Emily Austin's Someday Everyone in this Room Will Be Dead.

Good Friday afternoon! I initially wrote this review on the hottest day of the year and I imagined you were probably already furious/melting/refusing to work/swimming in a paddling pool in the garden – delete as appropriate. Since I was sure your main interest at that point was just lying infront of a fan whilst groaning, I’ve waited until I thought I might have your full attention to post this because I’m very keen you receive my message loud and clear: go and pick up a copy of Impossible by Sarah Lotz right now/after work and get reading this weekend!

I remember hearing about this novel right after just reading an article on detransitioning in a national newspaper. I’ve long been interested in the transgender experience and particularly in how the conversation has changed -often for the worst- as its become more mainstream.

It’s hardly been a moment since I posted my review of Beth O’Leary’s The No Show, so I’m coming in unexpectedly hard here with the romance novels. On a practical level it’s just that all my favourite authors of this genre have really been leaning into the Spring and Summer months with new releases but, on a more emotional note, I think these are great reads for pure escapism.

This is, without a doubt, my best book so far of 2022 and it’s going to take some beating (not that it’s a competition). I was immediately intrigued first and foremost by the title because I love a memoir but do also often mull the boundaries inherent in writing such a piece - who is it for, what’s its function for the writer and so on. I’m also aware that Abi Morgan is a writer for stage and screen and so I was interested in how her work might translate to the stage.

I became an instant Beth O’Leary fan after reading The Flat Share (I’m excited for the TV adaptation too) due to the unique premise, fun note writing format and quirky characters. It was a quick, page-turning read and I instantly went on to download and devour the free Christmas story on her website that followed the characters after the book ended.

Hello strangers! I’ve been so caught up with planning for my theatre tour (not so subtle plug, sorry) that I’ve totally neglected book reviews despite having read some utter delights recently. Today though, that changes!

Gillian McAllister is a pretty cool cucumber. I first discovered her on instagram where she has a significant presence now, updating followers on both her daily writing life and the walks she takes with her dog Wendy in the countryside near her home. She talks openly and often about how she left her job as a lawyer to be a full-time writer and outlines in detail how hard she worked to make this a reality.

Unexpectedly one of my top reads of 2021, I requested this book on Netgalley because I’ve also been writing a novel about a young woman obsessed with dying and I was keen to compare and learn. Of course, because Everyone in this Room will Someday be Dead (let’s ‘shorten’ this to EITRWSBD) starts in such a well written and attention grabbing way I instantly lost the will to write my own novel.

Every year I do my literary round up and every year it sparks off lovely conversations - whether that be with fellow fans of similar books or those that use this list as a jumping off point for their next read. If you’re in the latter camp I’ve included some categorisation/genre information for each book which might make finding what you’re looking for a bit easier.

AJ Pearce’s Dear Mrs Bird was one of my favourite reads of 2019. The tone is wonderfully WW2-era British jolly hockey sticks, it takes a fun look behind the scenes of an agony aunt page at a fictional women’s magazine before shifting delicately into a darker, sadder reality of war.

Hello, hello. Nothing to see here. Just me, popping by on October 19th to deliver my September Culture Wrap Up. You nearly got it a couple of days ago but as this delightful website opted to delete the post I wrote yesterday, we’ve now surpassed the halfway-through-October-mark. However, I do think it was worth the wait as September was a classy as heck month for culture for me and I have lots to tell you about.

For a couple of years now I’ve heard people gushing over Sally Rooney novels, obsessing over the BBC adaptation of Normal People, and getting into tit-for-tat arguments over whether her books deserve the celebrity status they’ve been afforded. Whatever people believe, they tend to have pretty strong feelings on Rooney’s writing.

I usually can’t wait to put together my reading wrap ups at the end of each month but for the last few months, around May onwards, I’ve had an absolutely terrible few months reading wise.

Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss is not a book that has arrived quietly. Although Mason herself says she wrote it pretty much in secret, it has been received with enthusiasm from reviewers and fellow authors to the extent that, despite a self-imposed book buying ban and a general dislike for heavier, more expensive hardbacks, I was desperate to read it.

When I picked The Surrogate on NetGalley I actually thought I was getting THIS novel that I’d seen doing the social media rounds, when in actuality I was getting THIS one.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post I’ve found the last couple of months challenging. Oddly enough it’s this period in the pandemic when I should be imbued with optimism that I feel most helpless and overwhelmed. I mention this only to explain why I’m doing a May/June culture wrap up rather than a monthly one which is that I’ve really just not been reading much.

With fiction you’re able to seamlessly blend reality and imagination to produce some kind of truth without the reader knowing quite how much of the actual you they’ve encountered. With memoir, so we assume, everything is as close to truth as it can be.

This month was a delightful one for reading. I found myself constantly engrossed in a one book or another and ended the month with my nose still in about three different novels!