CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND EATING DISORDERS. Roxane Gay’s 2017 memoir Hunger, subtitled A Memoir Of (My) Body, presents itself as anexploration of Gay’s experiences as a morbidly obese person, but it is in fact so much more than that. In it she deals with all the facets of her identity that come with inhabiting […]Read More
Title: The Constant Rabbit Author: Jasper Fforde What I Think So Far: Jasper Fforde’s latest book, The Constant Rabbit, offers readers an escapist novel that is smothered in both pure whimsy and wit. Set in the small fictional English village of Much Hemlock in 2020, The Constant Rabbit paints a clever and detailed picture of […]Read More
Having told the stories of his adolescence and university years in his hit radio feature 24 Years at The Tap End, for years and becoming a household name in radio and television, I wanted to chat with Chris about his new cookbook for students, Eat Sleep Zoom Reheat, ahead of what is set to be […]Read More
This is itI’m not coming after youI’m going to lie down for half an hourThis is itI’m not going downOn your memoryI’m not rubbing my face in it anymoreI’m going to yawnI’m going to stretchI’m going to put a knitting needleUp my noseAnd poke out my brainI don’t want to love youFor the rest of […]Read More
Expectation by Anna Hope delves into the disappointed lives of three women, as years after graduating university, the gap between the lives they imagined for themselves, and the ones they ended up living, has inevitably widened. The first is Hannah. Her friends envy her successful London life, complete with a well-paying job and a husband. […]Read More
Imagine sitting on a train bound for London when you suddenly lose your memory. This is what seems to happen to John. I say seems, as little in Dennis Potter’s psychological thriller Ticket to Ride is exactly how it appears on the surface. Odd fragments from John’s past float in and out of his disoriented […]Read More
Title: Sorry I’m Late I Didn’t Want To Come Author: Jessica Pan What I Think So Far: To most, the idea of performing stand-up comedy or travelling solo is probably a scary prospect. To introverts, this is what the most terrifying of nightmares are made of. Jessica Pan’s book Sorry I’m Late I Didn’t Want […]Read More
Luckily, my mum has always demanded I read books that open my mind to new perspectives, that pique my interest in history, politics and culture from around the world. Thus, this meant that when the book lists relating to Black Lives Matter circulated, I had read the majority of them already. But, of course, there […]Read More
Title: I Was Born For This Author: Alice Oseman What I Think So Far: Alice Oseman’s third novel, I Was Born For This explores the two sides of extreme fandom, following Angel, whose perceived life purpose is to love The Ark, a globally famous British boy-band, and Jimmy, the band’s frontman. The main topic of […]Read More
Last week was a ‘bumper week’ for UK booksellers as sales hit £33.6 million in seven days. This is an 11% increase on the previous week, and the best first week of September on record. When lockdown relegated us to our homes in March, as a nation we picked up hobbies to pass the time, […]Read More
When the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 shortlist was first announced, it was evident the judges had a difficult job on their hands, under pressure to pick a winner from some of the most talented writers we have all loved during lockdown. On Wednesday, it was officially announced, via a digital awards ceremony in London, […]Read More
Last week, an incredible shortlist for the Dublin Literary Award was announced. Anna Burns, Olga Tokarczuk and Tayari Jones, previous winners of the Booker Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Women’s Prize, are among eight of the women to be nominated. With three novels in translation, the award includes writers from Canada, France, […]Read More
The Bronte Parsonage Museum has received a donation of £20,000 from the family of T.S. Eliot following the financial toll taken by the coronavirus on the museum’s profits. The historic building where the famed Bronte sisters were raised is at risk of permanent closure as lockdown caused an expected loss of more than £500,000. Despite […]Read More
Kelly McWilliams’ debut novel, Agnes at the End of the World, has a unique premise that was perfectly suited to its timely release in the lockdown of August 2020. Slotting itself into the dystopian genre, this apocalyptic novel follows two sisters who live in a fundamentalist cult. The oldest sibling, Agnes, regularly meets with a […]Read More
When reading fiction, you’ll find that a lot of the time you are quite moved by the story.However, over time, it loses it power when you remember it is fictional. The intimateconnections with the characters you develop, and the tense following of the plot that playson your emotions begins to fade as the novelty wears […]Read More
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