Two #1920Club Novels by E.M. Delafield

E.M. Delafield was astonishingly prolific in the first few decades of the 20th century – she managed to write about 40 books in less than thirty years. And so there are quite a few years where two books appeared – since 1920 is one of those years, I decided to read ’em both. Tension and The Heel of Achilles both bear many traits of Delafield’s novels, and are recognisably from the same author, but they are also extremely different.

Tension

Apparently I read this in 2004, but I got to the end of it without remembering a single detail – and I’m glad I re-read it, because it’s brilliant. The main characters are Lady Rossiter and Sir Julian Rossiter, and when Delafield created them I suspect she had half an eye on Mr and Mrs Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. They have very little fondness for each other, though Sir Julian usually restricts himself to silently laughing at Lady Rossiter’s nonsensical sayings and gossip. Where she differs from Mrs Bennet is that Lady R is also hypocritical and a little cruel – though she would always see it as doing her duty. That is one of the main tensions of Tension.

But all starts off very amusingly – here’s the opening of the novel:

“Auntie Iris has written a book!”

“A book!” echoed both auditors of the announcement, in keys varying between astonishment and dismay.

“Yes, and it’s going to be published, and put into a blue cover, and sold, and Auntie Iris is going to make heaps and heaps of money!”

“What is it to be called?” said Lady Rossiter rather gloomily, fixing an apprehensive eye on the exuberant niece of the authoress.

“It’s called ‘Why, Ben!’ and it’s a Story of the Sexes,” glibly quoted the young lady, unaware of the shock inflicted by this brazen announcement, delivered at the top of her squeaky, nine-year-old voice.

Could there be a better fake title than Why, Ben! – I love it, and all the comedy around how horrified everyone is by the idea of this book is glorious. Delafield might also have Austen in mind with her style in this novel – she does lots of sentences with the balance and irony of an Austen sentence, laughing at everyone involved and never saying quite everything – leaving the reader to fill in the gaps and thus feel on the side of the author.

The children (whom the Rossiters unite in loathing, though Lady R would not admit it openly) are neighbours, and the offspring of harassed, jovial Mark. Their mother is (whisper it) a ‘dypsomaniac’, shut away but very much not dead. And that is why Lady Rossiter takes an officious concern when a young woman moves to the area and starts working with Mark – because, surely, it is the same Miss Marchrose who once broke off an engagement when her fiance became disabled…

Delafield often enjoys poking fun at people who ‘Don’t want to gossip, but…’ – and sometimes she shows the dark side of it too. Tension is always an extremely funny book, particularly if you like dry, character-based, and dialogue-heavy comedy (which I definitely do), but it gets darker as it goes on. Lady Rossiter is ruthlessly determined to ruin Miss Marchrose, all in the name of protecting those around her and not wanting to gossip. She never does anything outright. She just quietly and subtly makes the situation impossible for Miss Marchrose. And Delafield is so clever at not making Lady Rossiter a deceitful character – she genuinely does believe she is doing what is right, and has an answer for every exasperated accusation Sir Julian makes. Which isn’t that many, because he follows the path of least resistance.

Delafield is brilliant when she unites comedy and tragedy, and I think Tension is one of her best books. It’s certainly stylised, but it’s a style I loved.

The Heel of Achilles

The Heel of Achilles was published the same year, and also republished as a Hutchinson’s ‘Pocket Library’ edition – but appearances are a bit deceptive because it is MUCH longer. The font is tiny in these pages. It’s a Bildungsroman about Lydia Raymond – whom we meet in the opening lines:

“I am an orphan,” reflected Lydia Raymond, with immense satisfaction.

She was a very intelligent little girl of twelve years old, and she remembered very well that when her father had died out in China, three years ago, it was her mother who had been the centre of attention and compassion. People had spoken about her poor dead father, and had praised him and pitied him, but their real attention had all been for the widow, who was there under their eyes, pathetic and sorrow-stricken. Lydia herself had been “poor little thing,” but Grandpapa and her aunts and uncle had all told her that it was her mother who must be thought of now, and she knew that they kept on saying to one another that “the child will be a comfort to poor Mary.” Her own individuality, which she felt so strongly, did not seem to count at all, and Lydia had, quite silently, resented that intensely, ever since she could remember anything at all.

She grows up with that Grandpapa and aunts and uncle – the dominating character is Grandpapa, though. He is selfish, brusque, and very weak even at the beginning of the novel – though, given how long he lives for, he must have only been about 60 when his age meant he needed to be assisted across the room. He certainly isn’t pleasant, but he takes an interest in Lydia and tries to coach her – chiefly, never to talk about herself, because people aren’t interested. Always let others talk about themselves. (He never really addresses what happens if both interlocutors are taking this approach…)

There are some funny interludes when she goes to stay with some boisterous, sporty cousins who classify anything sentimental, artistic, or even ordinarily sensible, as ‘nonsense’. Delafield sends them up brilliantly, along with Lydia’s confusion and resentment of the new world she is thrown into. She does much better at school, where her aptitude for maths apparently gets her all the friends – would that my school’s popularity system worked on maths and not sports!

This mathematical ability gets her a job doing accounts at a milliners when she leaves school, and we see her new world of a boarding house and a business, populated with its own mix of eccentrics, pathetic characters, and the odd sympathetic one.

Along the way, there’s a big jump of a decade or more, and we see the impact that a life of determined self-sacrifice has on Lydia’s family…

Delafield often returned to the idea that people who are always sacrificing themselves for others are a pain to be around. She does it very amusingly in some places (notably As Others Hear Us) and more poignantly in others – in The Heel of Achilles, it’s intended to be more poignant, I think. My problem with it is that Lydia’s self-sacrificial nature seems to come rather late in the day – the offshoot of the ‘don’t talk about yourself’ maxim, but perhaps not as thoroughly worked out a theme as it could be.

The Heel of Achilles is very good, but I think it should have been a third shorter. Delafield dwells for a long time in periods that don’t enhance the story much, and everything felt rather slow – in contract to Tension, which zips along and keeps momentum. It’s nowhere near as funny as Tension, nor is intended to be, though there are plenty of lines with that witty, ironical twist. It is, perhaps, the sort of novel to which Delafield returned most often – but, for my money, Tension is more successful.

Still, impressive that Delafield could turn her hands to two such different novels in 1920 – the main overriding theme being selfish women spoiling the lives of those around them…

The Master Man by Ruby M. Ayres – #1920Club

Of course, the novels that we remember from 1920 probably aren’t the ones that most people were reading. Fitzgerald, Woolf and Mansfield’s stories, Wharton – all had their audience in their day, but they weren’t the bestsellers. That’s why I’m really pleased that Con read Ethel M. Dell and that’s why I decided to read The Master Man by Ruby M. Ayres.

Ayres is one of those names I came across a lot while researching popular fiction of the interwar period, but I hadn’t read any first hand (and had that in common with plenty of cultural commentators of the period). In a lovely little bookshop in St David’s, I picked up The Master Man – and it only took me a couple of hours to read.

From the off, let me say perhaps my favourite thing about this particular edition of the book. And that’s that the quote on the cover never happens. In case you can’t read it, it says ”You hate me? quite likely! it does not surprise me. Brute force? I confess it: but still – you were Kissed.” Besides a lamentable approach to capital letters, this quote also betrays the period’s fondness for sexual assault in literature, and brutes who are convinced to be more considerate by the sheer power of the woman’s English virtue. This was, after all, only a year after E. M. Hull’s tremendously successful novel The Sheik. But in The Master Man? Nothing even vaguely approaching this scene occurs. A section of the readership would certainly be disappointed.

The main character of The Master Man is Patricia – a spoilt, rich, unpleasant woman who has lived to the age of twenty-one with everything that money could buy. Except family and friendship. Her benefactor is Peter Rolf, the man who adopted her when she was seven, but has never shown her much affection. In the first of many rather unbelievable moments, Patricia can’t remember much at all from the first seven years of her life, including the family she came from.

As the novel opens, she is lounging about on the houseboat of Bernard Chesney, a man she thinks little of but might also marry, because he is rich and connected. Chesney’s servant is on to her, and gives her a few sharp words, at which she is very indignant. But she hasn’t got much time to be indignant, because, as the opening lines say…

When Peter Rolf died[,] Patricia was away from home staying with some people in a houseboat on the Thames.

It had been ideal weather for the river, hot and breathless, with wonderful starry nights, and it was an ideal evening when the telegram came summoning her home because Peter Rolf had inconsiderately died while she was away and spoilt a holiday which she had been thoroughly enjoying.

Patricia isn’t too bothered about the death of the only parent she’s ever known (because, again, she doesn’t remember anything about the first seven years of my life, though this is never directly acknowledged) – she’s just annoyed that her holiday is over. And even more annoyed when she realises… she’s been cut off without a penny. Peter Rolf has left all his money to the son that none of them have ever seen. And in a twist that would be quite clever if it hadn’t come so early in the novel… the son is Chesney’s servant! For no reason! This coincidence is never referred to again, but it was a fun surprise.

Having been brusque and masterly and rude when he first met her, Michael – for that is his name – immediately cares deeply about Patricia’s future. She continues to be petulant and unpleasant and refuses to take any of his money, insisting that she will support herself and/or stay with friends, neither of which prove to be true. And so they’re in a cat and mouse situation of him trying to help her and Patricia refusing to be helped from… pride? I guess?

It’s really unclear why Michael cares about her, because she is horrible, and it’s equally unclear why she won’t accept that help, having been very happy to live off other people for her whole life. There are one or two other twists that look a little like Ayres only thought of them as she was writing, and the ending is entirely predictable. The title has very little to do with the novel, which would have been more interesting if Michael had continued to treat Patricia a little rudely – as she deserves – rather than bending over backwards for her. He certainly wouldn’t dream of kissing her against her will, as per the cover.

So, yes, this novel was completely stupid and littered with stereotypical writing. Nobody ever laughs without ‘laughing mirthlessly’, for instance. But, you know what, I had a ball reading it. I imagine half of its 1920 audience took it deathly seriously, and the other half recognised it was total nonsense but easy to race through, and satisfyingly predictable in its ending. Ayres knew what she was doing, and did what was needed well – i.e. wrote something interesting enough to keep reading at break-neck speed, without ever letting logic, common sense, or human nature get in the way of a rattling story.

What Next? by Denis Mackail – #1920Club

I promise not all of the authors I’ve chosen for the 1920 Club begin with ‘Mac’ – but I’ve been meaning to read a few more Denis Mackail novels that I’ve had around for a while. His name is probably familiar to you from Greenery Street, the sweet story of early married life that Persephone republished – but he was prolific and there are plenty of other novels to explore, though most of them are pretty difficult to find. What Next? was his first.

What Next? is set over the course of three days, and it’s rather a dizzying novel in terms of what happens and it terms of how it’s written. The hero, for want of a better word, is Jim. He’s a young, affable, wealthy, rather hopeless young man who is immersed in club life, spends his days doing little of value, and frequently proposes to a young woman called Mary who is very fond of him and refuses to take him seriously. In other words, they’re the sort of young pair familiar to any Edwardian reader of Punch, and who more or less survived the First World War as archetypes, slowly petering out in the decades to follow.

Jim continues to affable but very soon ceases to be wealthy – as the rich relative who had kept him living luxury dies, leaving behind a bankrupt and ruined company. Jim learns in the first pages of the novel that he has been left with practically no money, and must learn to economise. Which he does by going to his club and having dinner, and unloading his cares onto his manservant, Lush.

Lush proves not just to be good at serving drinks and listening – he is also something of a financial mastermind, and needs only capital in order to accumulate enormous riches. And it’s here that we come across the first of the many times that Mackail gives a character an enormously long, expository speech. Lush explains in great detail what he intends to do, but it’s the sort of detail that is more confusing than none – somehow still very abstract, and I left with no real clue what Lush intended to do to re-secure the riches. Luckily Jim seems to be convinced, and lends Lush his last remaining money to give it a go – and Lush disappears.

Jim believes that Lush has absconded with his cash – but no, of course not, he returns and has trebled it! He even explains how, in a long, expository speech – that doesn’t seem even remotely related to what he said he’d do in the first place. Never mind.

Around this point, the novel shifts into being much more about a road trip, unveiling a corrupt fellow, and reuniting Mary and Jim. There’s precious little connection between the first half and the second half – except a fondness for monologues that last several pages. It becomes a sort of romantic moral caper at the end, and the financial stuff that dominated the first half of the novel is quietly forgotten.

So, What Next? shows a great deal of writerly immaturity when it comes to plotting, structure, and exposition. Here’s the weird paradox – I really liked it. Mackail might be weak at those things here, and I’ve seen similar issues in novels he wrote nearly thirty years later, but what he’s so great at is tone. He is great at creating something sprightly, whimsical, joyful. There are hints of A.A. Milne’s ‘Rabbits’, or of a toned-down Wodehouse. Very much of its era, it’s the sort of atmosphere I lap up in a novel – and totally reflective of its era, as is befitting for a club readalong.

And I had to single out this bit to quote…

Of the literary contents of his not inconsiderable library he had a fair but by no means exhaustive knowledge, finding, as many have found, that a book which while still lying unbought and uncut in the monastic odour of a bookseller’s shop cannot be put down, has yet an unaccountable habit of losing its interest when removed to one’s own fireside; and having also fallen a victim to the weakness, only to be indulged in by the rich, which does so much to keep the literary world on its legs, of always ordering the whole of an author’s output whenever he had derived pleasure from a single example of it.

Potterism by Rose Macaulay #1920Club

If I were thinking about my favourite authors, there’s a strong possibility that Rose Macaulay would be bubbling under on that list. While none of her novels are my absolute favourites, she is consistently very good. She’s now best known for The Towers of Trebizond and The World My Wilderness, I think, and I do really like those accomplished books – but I prefer her ironic comedies of the 1920s. She was very prolific at that time, and books like Crewe TrainKeeping Up Appearances, and Dangerous Ages are total delights. Indeed, Dangerous Ages is one of my choices for the British Library Women Writers series.

Potterism was Macaulay’s first book of the decade and was also her first bestseller – which, given the subtitle ‘A tragi-farcical tract’, might be rather unexpected. If it’s a tract at all, it’s a stab at popular journalism of the day – and, equally, a stab at those who opposed it.

The title comes from the name Potter. This Potter (later Lord something) is a newspaper proprietor and a straight-forward, kind, hard-working man who is somehow rather simple-minded while possessing great business acumen. In fact, let’s let Macaulay describe him:

Both commonplace and common was Mr Percy Potter (according to some standards), but clever, with immense patience, a saving sense of humour, and that imaginative vision without which no newspaper owner, financier, general, politician, poet, or criminal can be great. He was, in fact, greater than the twins would ever be, because he was not at odds with his material: he found such stuff as his dreams were made of ready to his hand, in the great heart of the public – that last place where the twins would have thought of looking.

He has made his money writing for a lower class of public who want their news given without affectation – his wife, a sillier version of him, does similar things for the popular novel reading public, under the name Leila Yorke. She was writing the sort of book that was extremely popular in the ’20s, and which perhaps we’ll hear more about as the week goes on.

[How like Macaulay to include ‘criminal’ there!] But the people who make up the term ‘Potterism’ are close to home – among them, the Potters’ children. His twins, mentioned in that quote,  Jane and Johnny are part of the Anti-Potterism League. The League is created by Oxbridge intellectual types who despise the general public and the humbug that is handed to them. To the minds of Jane and Johnny, despising Potterism has nothing to do with the affection for their father – and he is generous enough to find it amusing rather than appalling. Everybody goes through that phase, perhaps.

Macaulay is excellent at making fun of everyone at the same time. There are more tragic characters, like one of the Potters’ other child, Clare, who is not clever or contented. But mostly, we see youthful arrogance and close-minded, middle-class settling for mediocrity, and doses of hypocrisy all on much of an even playing field. I certainly didn’t ever get the impression that Macaulay was siding strongly with anybody, or writing to proclaim the truth of one viewpoint against the falseness of another. Rather, she is looking around at the highbrow vs middlebrow battles of the period – and finding everyone absurd.

Among many impressive things in this impressive novel is that way that it segues into something of a murder mystery, or at least a death mystery, without seeming inconsistent. The only thing that does threaten the tone of the novel is that Macaulay gives different sections to different narrators, with the first and last of the five sections being in the third person. It’s a technique that is used a lot now, but I think Potterism would have been a better novel had it all been in the third person – not least because two of the three narrators are fairly negligible members of the Anti-Potterism League, and the section narrated by ‘Leila Yorke’ is mainly an exercise in Macaulay having fun at the expense of a certain sort of over-dramatic person. Macaulay’s narrative voice is the most amusing and the most satisfying, and I didn’t want to lose it.

A very strong start to the 1920 Club, and a reminder that I must read more of the Macaulay novels on my shelves – and hunt for those that remain elusive. And, happy news, Potterism will be reprinted by Handheld Press later in the year – I certainly recommend getting hold of a copy.

#1920Club – round up

The 1920 Club kicks off tomorrow – what better way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday, if you have such a thing?

Put links to your reviews on this post, and I’ll round them all up at the end of the week.

And if you have any suggestions for which club year Karen and I should do next, let us know that too.

Happy reading…

The Master Man by Ruby M. Ayres

Stuck in a Book

The Happy Foreigner by Enid Bagnold

HeavenAli

Call Mr Fortune by H.C. Bailey

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Mary Rose, A Play in Three Acts by J.M. Barrie

Relevant Obscurity

Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Pining for the West

Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson

Lizzy’s Literary Life

She Reads Novels

Madame Bibi Lophile

The Princess of the School by Angela Brazil

Scones and Chaises Longues

Development by Bryher

Neglected Books

R.U.R by Karel Capek

Typings

Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather
What Cathy Read Next

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Book Around the Corner

746 Books

Book Tapestry

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Bitter Tea and Mystery

Katharine Harding

Cheri by Colette

Buried in Print

Harriet Devine’s Blog

What Me Read

Tension by E.M. Delafield

Stuck in a Book

The Heel of Achilles by E.M. Delafield

Stuck in a Book

The Top of the World by Ethel M. Dell

Staircase Wit

Penny Plain by O. Douglas

HeavenAli

Adventures in Reading, Running, and Working from Home

The Cut-Glass Bowl by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Love Books, Read Books

Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ripple Effects

Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale

The Literary Sisters

In Chancery by John Galsworthy

Booked For Life

Wandering by Hermann Hesse

1stReading’s Blog

The Farcical History of Richard Greenow by Aldous Huxley

Tony’s Book World

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau

A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

1stReading’s Blog

Katharine Harding

The Doom That Came to Sarnath by H. P. Lovecraft

What Me Read

Potterism by Rose Macaulay

Stuck in a Book

What Next? by Denis Mackail

Stuck in a Book

Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield

Brona’s Books

The Wind Blows by Katherine Mansfield

Brona’s Books

Psychology by Katherine Mansfield

Brona’s Books

The Stepmother by A.A. Milne

The Captive Reader

If I May by A.A. Milne

The Captive Reader

Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Staircase Wit

Every Man for Himself by Hopkins Moorhouse

The Dusty Bookcase

The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Staircase Wit

A Hot Cup of Pleasure

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Typings

The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

The Bridal Wreath by Sigrid Undset

What Me Read

In The Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim

Karen’s Books and Chocolate

The Black Grippe by Edgar Wallace

ANZ Litlover’s LitBlog

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Book Word

Tredynas Days

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

The Cask by Freeman Wills Crofts

A Hot Cup of Pleasure

Madame Bibi Lophile

Stories by Virginia Woolf

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Essays by Virginia Woolf

Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

#1920Club – starting soon!

It’s that time of year again – though time has ceased to mean very much to me. But it IS April and it IS time for another club year – this time, our earliest yet: 1920 club.

It’s kicking off on Monday – join me and Karen in reading any book published in 1920, and sharing your thoughts on your blog, on GoodReads or LibraryThing, or in the comments on our posts. Just drop us a link when you’re done, and together we’ll build up a good picture of what the reading world was like 100 years ago! All books welcome, and all languages – as long as it was first published in 1920, then perfect.

It’s a weird, strange, anxious time – I think taking a trip back to 1920 seems quite inviting. But obviously if you’re not feeling like you can read anything at the moment, there’s absolutely no guilt in giving this one a miss. Join us in October for whatever the next club year is, and hopefully we’ll be back to normal!

For Adults Only by Beverley Nichols

Sorry to go absent after #1920Club – my internet died! I was still able to use my phone data, but it wasn’t great for writing blog posts. And goodness knows the internet is vital at the moment. Thanks so much to everyone who joined in the 1920 Club – there were loads of reviews I haven’t managed to read properly yet, what with the internet giving up, but I will at some point. (And my comments were getting spammed on WordPress blogs for a while, so maybe check your spam comments folder too…)

Karen and I have come up with the next club year for October, and I’m already excited about it. We’ll be sharing it soon – watch this space!

We’ve all been reading what works best in this challenging time – and I have turned to quite a lot of Beverley Nichols, and will no doubt indulge in some more. One of the books I’ve read is the inauspiciously titled For Adults Only, from 1932. It’s nowhere near as salacious as it sounds – rather, it is a series of dialogues between parent and child, intended to satirise parenting manuals of the time, but also rather like a catechism. For example – this, from ‘A Child’s Guide to the Customs’:

Q. (In tones of piercing clarity.) Mother, what is that lovely smell?

A. Smell?

Q. Yes. Coming out of your fur coat?

A. Heavens! It’s broken.

Q. (With even more piercing clarity.) What’s broken?

A. Ssh! People will hear you.

Q. Why shouldn’t they hear me, mummy?

A. It was a bottle of scent.

Q. Why shouldn’t they hear that you’d broken a bottle of scent?

A. Be quiet, or I shall take away your lemon.

(There is a moment’s pause, during which the unfortunate parent disposes of the glass, and sponges her coat with a handkerchief, which she eventually throws overboard. Then she returns to the cross-examination.)

Q. You still smell lovely, mummy.

A. It will wear off.

Q. You smell like the lady who comes to supper with daddy when you go away for week-ends.

And so on and so forth. We get similar child’s guides to theatre, opera, sun bathing, packing, women motorists, bridge, and all sorts. It’s all good fun. The downside is that they are basically all the same – the child tends to have been party to secrets, while also being very literal and rather clueless. They are insistent in the search for truth, and generally the parent seems to loathe them. I don’t know where they appeared originally, but I imagine it was in a weekly magazine or something – and it would be a delight like that. Like a reliable sketch comedy character, appearing to do their bit. Read all in one go, it is rather repetitive.

What is an endless delight, though, is the illustrations – done by Joyce Dennys, of Henrietta’s War fame. I always love seeing her illustrations – they have a vitality and comedy that felt fresh even when Nichols’ bit was beginning to wear a little.

So, highly recommend – but maybe just read one a week! And it’s interesting to see Nichols doing something a little different from the other books I’ve read by him.

The next club is announced!

Thanks to everyone who put forward suggestions for the next club year, following #1930Club! Karen and I looked through everyone’s ideas, and two decades were definitely standing out – the 1920s and the 1950s.

In the end, we decided upon the #1920Club – first suggested by Paula. It’s right at the beginning of the period we do club years in, and it’ll be the centenary next year – which feels very appropriate. Maybe we’ll turn to the 1950s next time?

Here’s the badge, and as you can see it’ll be next April. Plenty of warning so get hunting for what you might read!

By the way, for those asking why we don’t do earlier or later years, and who haven’t seen the explanation before – the reason we decided to stop at 1980 was basically personal taste! The reason we don’t go earlier than 1920 is because cheap printing and a wider reading public around that time led to a great deal more books being published – and, in practice, it would be harder to get the same diverse range of books (particularly if we want them widely accessible) if we went earlier. Hope that clears that up!

All Book Reviews

3191 Blog – A Year of Mornings
Ackerley, J.R. – My Father and Myself
Ackland, Valentine – For Sylvia
Adam, Ruth – A House in the Country
Adams, Poppy – The Behaviour of Moths
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi – Americanah
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi – The Thing Around Your Neck
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi – Purple Hibiscus
Ahava, Selja – Things That Fall From the Sky
Aira, César – The Literary Conference
Ali, Sabahattin – Madonna in a Fur Coat
Alexander, Diana – The Other Mitford
Alington, Adrian – The Vanishing Celebrities
Allingham, Margery – Police at the Funeral
Alpha of the Plough – Leaves in the Wind
Anand, Mulk Raj – Untouchable
Anderson, Sarah – Halfway to Venus
Anderson, Verily – Spam Tomorrow
Ardizzone, Edward – The Young Ardizzone
Arlen, Michael – The Green Hat
Arthur, Anthony – Literary Feuds
Ashworth, Jenn – A Kind of Intimacy
Ashworth, Jenn – Fell
Ashworth, Jenn – Notes Made While Falling
Ashworth, Jenn – Ghosted
Athill, Diana – Stet
Athill, Diana – Somewhere Towards the End
Athill, Diana – Midsummer Night at the Workhouse
Attlee, James – Isolarion
Atwood, Margaret – The Penelopiad
Atwood, Margaret – The Blind Assassin
Austen, Jane – Northanger Abbey
Austen, Jane – Sanditon
Ayckbourn, Alan – The Crafty Art of Playmaking
Ayckbourn, Alan – Relatively Speaking
Ayckbourn, Alan – Just Between Ourselves
Ayckbourn, Alan – The Norman Conquests
Ayckbourn, Alan – Man of the Moment
Ayres, Ruby M. – The Master Man
Babnik, Gabriela – Dry Season
Bailey, Jenna – Can Any Mother Help Me?
Bailey, Paul – At the Jerusalem
Bainbridge, Beryl – Injury Time
Bainbridge, Beryl – Sweet William
Bainbridge, Beryl – Something Happened Yesterday
Bainbridge, Beryl – The Bottle Factory Outing
Bainbridge, Beryl – Another Part of the Wood
Baines, Elizabeth – Balancing on the Edge of the World
de Balzac, Honore – Sarrasine
Baker, Dorothy – Young Man With a Horn
Baker, Dorothy – Cassandra at the Wedding
Baker, Dorothy – The Street
Baker, Frank – Before I Go Hence
Baker, Frank – Miss Hargreaves
Baker, Frank – Miss Hargreaves (second review)
Baker, Frank – Miss Hargreaves : the play
Baker, Frank – Stories of the Strange and Sinister
Baker, Frank – Mr. Allenby Loses The Way
Baker, Frank – I Follow But Myself
Baker, Frank – The Birds
Baker, Frank – Lease of Life
Baker, Frank – Talk of the Devil
Banks, Lynne Reid – The L-Shaped Room
Banks, Lynne Reid – The Warning Bell
Banks, Lynne Reid – An End To Running
Barbal, Maria – Stone in a Landslide
Barbery, Muriel – The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Barbery, Muriel – The Gourmet
Barford, Mirren and John Lewes – Joy Street: A Wartime Romance in Letters 1940-42
Barnes, Julian – The Sense of an Ending
Barnes, Julian – Elizabeth Finch
Barton, Polly – Fifty Sounds
Bastašić, Lana – Catch the Rabbit
Bates, H.E. – Fair Stood The Wind For France
Bauby, Jean-Dominique – The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
Bawden, Nina – Dear Austen
Baxter, Charles [ed.] – A William Maxwell Portrait
Bayley, Sally – Girl With Dove
Barnard, Robert – A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie
Bartlett, Mike – Snowflake
Bawden, Nina – A Woman of My Age
The Beatles – Get Back
Beaton, Cecil – Ashcombe
Beauchamp, Barbara – Wine of Honour
Beauman, Ned – Boxer, Beetle
Beauman, Ned – The Teleportation Accident
Beauman, Ned – Glow
Beauman, Nicola – The Other Elizabeth Taylor
Bedford, Sybille – A Favourite of the Gods
Bedford, Sybille – Pleasures and Landscapes
Bedford, Sybille – The Faces of Justice
Beerbohm, Max – More
Beerbohm, Max – Zuleika Dobson
Beha, Christopher – The Whole Five Feet
Behrman, S.N. – Duveen
Behrman, S.N. – Conversation With Max
Bell, Adrian – Corduroy
Bell, Adrian – A Countyman’s Winter Notebook
Bell, Quentin – Bloomsbury
Belloc, Hilary – The Green Overcoat
Benatar, Stephen – Wish Her Safe At Home
Bender, Aimee – The Butterfly Lampshade
Benedictus, David – Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
Bennett, Alan – The Uncommon Reader
Bennett, Alan – The History Boys
Bennett, Arnold – The Old Wives’ Tale
Bennett, Arnold – Literary Taste
Bennett, Arnold – Our Women
Bennett, Arnold – Buried Alive
Bennett, Arnold – The Truth About An Author
Bennett, Arnold – A Great Man
Bennett, Arnold – The Human Machine
Bennett, Arnold – Riceyman Steps
Benson, E.F. – The Mapp & Lucia series
Benson, E.F. – Secret Lives
Benson, E.F. – Daisy’s Aunt
Benson, E.F. – The Osbornes
Benson, E.F. – The Oakleyites
Benson, E.F. – Mrs Ames
Benson, E.F. – Final Edition
Benson, E.F. – Paying Guests
Benson, Stella – Living Alone
Benson, Stella – I Pose
Benson, Stella – This Is The End
Benson, Stella – The Poor Man
Benson, Theodora – Muddling Through
Benson, Theodora – Concert Pitch
Benson, Theodora – Which Way?
Bentley, Nicolas – How Can You Bear To Be Human?
Berkeley, Anthony – The Poisoned Chocolates Case
Berridge, Elizabeth – Tell It To A Stranger
Berridge, Elizabeth – Sing Me Who You Are
Berridge, Elizabeth – The Story of Stanley Brent
Betts, P.Y. – People Who Say Goodbye
Beyrouk, Mbarek Ould – The Desert and the Drum
Bielenberg, Christabel – The Past is Myself
Biggers, Earl Derr – Love Insurance
Bioy Casares, Adolfo – The Invention of Morel
Bioy Casares, Adolfo – Asleep in the Sun
Bioy Casares, Adolfo & Silvina Ocampo – Where There’s Love, There’s Hate
Birchall, Diana – Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma
Birchall, Diana – The Compleat Mrs. Elton
Biss, Eula – Notes From No Man’s Land
Blackburn, Julia – Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske
Blackburn, Julia – The Leper’s Companions
Blom, Philipp – The Simmons Papers
Bloom, Ursula – The ABC of Authorship
Blumenfeld, Josephine – Pin A Rose on Me
Blunt, Wilfrid – Omar
Blyton, Enid – The St. Clare’s series
Bodger, Joan – How The Heather Looks
Boehmer, Elleke – Screens Against the Sky
Bogel, Anne – I’d Rather Be Reading
Boggs, Winifred – Sally on the Rocks
Boggs, Winifred – The Indignant Spinsters
Boggs, Winifred – Improper Prue
Bombeck, Erma – At Wit’s End
Bonnet, Jacques – Phantoms on the Bookshelf
Border, Terry – Bent Objects
Bostridge, Mark (ed.) – Lives For Sale: Biographers’ Tales
Bowen, Elizabeth – The Last September
Bowen, Elizabeth – The House in Paris
Bowen, Elizabeth – To The North
Bowen, Elizabeth – Friends and Relations
Bowles, Jane – Two Serious Ladies
Bradbury, Ray – Dandelion Wine
Brain, Russell – Tea With Walter de la Mare
Braine, John – Room at the Top
Brand, Millen – The Outward Room
Brandenburg, Molly – Everyday Cat Excuses
Bridge, Ann – Illyrian Spring
Briggs, Julia – A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit
Briggs, Kate – This Little Art
Briggs, Raymond – Ethel & Ernest
Brinton, Sybil G. – Old Friends and New Fancies
Bristow, Gwen and Bruce Manning – The Invisible Host
Brittney, Lynn – Christine Kringle
Bromfield, Louis – The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg
Brookner, Anita – Hotel du Lac
Brophy, Brigid – Hackenfeller’s Ape
Brophy, Brigid – The Finishing Touch
Brosh, Allie – Hyperbole and a Half
Brosh, Allie – Solutions and Other Problems
Brotherton, Rob – Suspicious Minds
Brown, George Mackay – Andrina and other stories
Brown, Pamela – The Swish of the Curtain
Bryson, Bill – Shakespeare
Buck, Pearl S. – The Good Earth
Buckrose, J.E.- The Privet Hedge
Buckrose, J.E. – A Bachelor’s Comedy
Buckrose, J.E. – Because of Jane
Bude, John – Death on the Riviera
Burkhart, Charles – I. Compton-Burnett
Burney, Frances – Evelina
Burton, Miles – The Secret of High Eldersham
Buzbee, Lewis – The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
Byars, Betsy – The Midnight Fox
Bythell, Shaun – The Diary of a Bookseller
Bythell, Shaun – Confessions of a Bookseller
Bythell, Shaun – Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops
Cairnes, Maud – Strange Journey
Cambridge, Elizabeth – Spring Always Comes
Cameron, Peter – Coral Glynn
Campbell, Jen – Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

Camus, Albert – The Outsider
Canfield Fisher, Dorothy – Seasoned Timber
Cannan, Joanna – Princes in the Land
Cannan, Joanna – Murder Included
Capek, Karel – Letters From England
Capote, Truman – In Cold Blood
Capote, Truman – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Carey, Edward – Alva & Irva
Carey, Edward – Observatory Mansions
Carey, Edward – Little
Carey, Edward – The Swallowed Man
Carey, John – The Unexpected Professor
Carey, Mariah – The Meaning of Mariah Carey
Carhart, Thad – The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
Carlton, Harold – Marrying Out
Caroso, Dulce Maria – Violeta Among the Stars
Carr, J. L. – A Month In The Country
Carr, J.L. – A Day in Summer
Carr, J.L. – What Hetty Did
Carroll, Lewis – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Carter, Angela – Wise Children
Carter, Angela – Several Perceptions
Carter, Angela – Love
Cartwright, Justin – This Secret Garden: Oxford Revisited
Cather, Willa – A Lost Lady
Cather, Willa – Alexander’s Bridge
Cavan, Romilly – Beneath the Visiting Moon
Cavanagh, Mary – The Crowded Bed
Cavanagh, Mary – A Seriously Useful Author’s Guide to Marketing and Publicising Books
Chandos, Dane – Abbie
Channon, E.M. – Little G
Chatto, Beth and Christopher Lloyd – Dear Friend and Gardener
Chesterton, G.K. – The Man Who Was Thursday
Cho, Catherine – Inferno
Cholmondeley, Mary – Diana Tempest
Cholmondeley, Mary – Red Pottage
Chopin, Kate – Portraits
Christie, Agatha – The Murder at the Vicarage
Christie, Agatha – The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Christie, Agatha – One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Christie, Agatha – Dumb Witness
Christie, Agatha – Five Little Pigs
Christie, Agatha – The Seven Dials Mystery
Christie, Agatha – Elephants Can Remember
Christie, Agatha – Curtain
Christie, Agatha – Mrs McGinty’s Dead
Christie, Agatha – Murder in the Mews
Christie, Agatha – Hallowe’en Party
Christie, Agatha – They Came to Baghdad
Christie, Agatha – Death in the Clouds
Christmas, Jane – The Pelee Project
Clapp, Susannah – A Card From Angela Carter
Clarkson, Sarah – Book Girl
Clavering, Molly – Mrs Lorimer’s Quiet Summer
Coates, John – Patience
Cobb, Richard – Still Life
Coelho, Paulo – The Alchemist
Coetzee, J. M. – Foe
Colegate, Isabel – The Shooting Party
Coles, William – The Well-Tempered Clavier
Colette – The Other One
Collier, John – His Monkey Wife
Collins, Paul – The Book of William
Collins, Paul – Sixpence House
Colquhoun, Kate – Mr. Brigg’s Hat
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – A House and Its Head
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – Parents and Children
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – Manservant & Maidservant

Compton-Burnett, Ivy – Pastors and Masters
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – More Women Than Men
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – Elders and Betters
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – A Heritage and Its History
Compton-Burnett, Ivy – Darkness and Day
Comyns, Barbara – Sisters By A River
Comyns, Barbara – The House of Dolls
Comyns, Barbara – The Juniper Tree
Comyns, Barbara – Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
Comyns, Barbara – Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead (second review)
Comyns, Barbara – The Vet’s Daughter
Comyns, Barbara – The Skin Chairs
Comyns, Barbara – Mr. Fox
Connolly, Cyril – Enemies of Promise
Conrad, Joseph – Heart of Darkness
Constanduros, Denis – My Grandfather and Father, Dear Father
Cooper, Lettice – Black Bethlehem
Cooper, Lettice – Desirable Residence
Cooper, Lettice – The Double Heart
Couto, Mia – Sleepwalking Land
Coward, Noel – Blithe Spirit
Coward, Noel – Pomp and Circumstance
Crews, Frederick C. – The Pooh Perplex
Crispin, Edmund – The Moving Toyshop
Critchley, Simon – Notes on Suicide
Crompton, Richmal – Frost at Morning
Crompton, Richmal – Matty and the Dearingroydes
Crompton, Richmal – Portrait of a Family
Crompton, Richmal – Still William
Crompton, Richmal – Journeying Wave
Crompton, Richmal – Mist and other ghost stories
Crompton, Richmal – Leadon Hill
Crompton, Richmal – Chedsy Place
Cruz, Afonso – Kokoschka’s Doll
Cunningham, Michael – The Hours
Cunningham, Michael – A Home at the End of the World
Cunningham, Michael – Land’s End
Cunningham, Michael – By Nightfall
Cunningham, Michael – Flesh and Blood
Cunningham, Michael – The Snow Queen
Cunningham, Michael – A Wild Swan
Cunningham, Michael – Specimen Days
Dahl, Roald – Matilda
Dane, Clemence – Regiment of Women
Dangarembga, Tsitsi – Nervous Conditions
Daniels, Lucy – Summer at Hope Meadows
Darling, William – Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller
Darrieussecq, Marie – My Phantom Husband
Davis, L.J. – A Meaningful Life
de Botton, Alain – How Proust Can Change Your Life
Delafield, E.M. – The Provincial Lady
Delafield, E.M. – Straw Without Bricks: I Visit The Soviets
Delafield, E.M. – As Others Hear Us
Delafield, E.M. – Gay Life
Delafield, E.M. – Zella Sees Herself
Delafield, E.M. – Three Marriages
Delafield, E.M. – The Suburban Young Man
Delafield, E.M. – Messalina of the Suburbs
Delafield, E.M. – The Pelicans
Delafield, E.M. – Turn Back The Leaves
Delafield, E.M. – Tension
Delafield, E.M. – The Heel of Achilles
de la Mare, Walter – The Picnic and other stories
Deledda, Grazia – Reeds in the Wind
Delius, F.C. – Portrait of the Woman as a Young Mother
Dench, Judi – And Furthermore
Dennis, Patrick – Auntie Mame
Dennys, Joyce – Henrietta’s War
Dennys, Joyce – Repeated Doses
Deraniyagala, Sonali – Wave
Deresiewicz, William – A Jane Austen Education
De Saint-Exupery, Antoine – Night Flight
Devine, Harriet – Being George Devine’s Daughter
Devonshire, Deborah (Deborah Mitford) – Counting My Chickens
Devonshire, Deborah – Home To Roost
Devonshire, Deborah – Wait for Me!
Dick, Kay – Ivy and Stevie
Dick, R.A. – The Ghost and Mrs Muir
Dickens, Charles – Great Expectations
Dickens, Monica – One Pair of Hands
Dickens, Monica – One Pair of Feet
Dickens, Monica – The Winds of Heaven
Dickens, Monica & Beverley Nichols – Yours Sincerely
Dillon, Brian – In the Dark Room
Dirda, Michael – Browsings
Dockrill, Laura – Mistakes in the Background
Dominguez, Carlos Maria – The Paper House
Dorward, Peter – Nightingale
Dostoevsky, Fyodor – The Eternal Husband
Dostoevsky, Fyodor – The Double
Douglas, O. – Pink Sugar
Douglas, O. – The Proper Place
Douglas, O. – Ann and Her Mother
Douglas-Fairhurst, Richard – The Story of Alice
Drabble, Margaret – The Garrick Year
Drabble, Margaret – The Millstone
Dreiser, Theodore – Letters To Louise
du Maurier, Daphne – The Flight of the Falcon
du Maurier, Daphne – My Cousin Rachel
du Maurier, Daphne – Letters from Menabilly
du Maurier, Daphne – Frenchman’s Creek
du Maurier, Daphne – Frenchman’s Creek (OVW’s review)
du Maurier, Daphne – The House on the Strand
du Maurier, Daphne – Rebecca
du Maurier, Daphne – The Scapegoat
du Maurier, Daphne – The Progress of Julius
du Maurier, Daphne – Not After Midnight
du Maurier, Daphne – The Rebecca Notebook
du Maurier, Daphne – Gerald
Dunn, Mark – Ella Minnow Pea
Dunn, Ronn – When Heaven Is Silent
Dunne, J.W. – Nothing Dies
Durrell, Gerald – My Family and Other Animals
Durrell, Gerald – Birds, Beasts, and Relatives
Eddo-Lodge, Reni – Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Edwards, Martin – The Golden Age of Murder
Elder, Josephine – Doctor’s Children
Elinger, John & Kathy Shock – That Sweet City: Visions of Oxford

Eliot, Elizabeth – Alice
Eliot, T.S. – The Family Reunion
Engel, Marian – Bear
English, Isobel – Every Eye
Ephron, Nora – Heartburn
Erdal, Jennie – Ghosting
Erdrich, Louise – Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
Ertz, Susan – Madame Claire
Essex, Mary – Tea is So Intoxicating
Essex, Mary – The Amorous Bicycle
Essex, Mary – Six Fools and a Fairy
Essex, Mary – The Romance of Dr Dinah
Essex, Mary – Divorce? Of Course
Evens, Brecht – The Wrong Place
Evens, Brecht – The Making Of
Evens, Brecht – Panther
Evens, Brecht – The City of Belgium
Fadiman, Anne – Ex Libris
Fadiman, Anne – At Large and At Small
Fair, Elizabeth – Bramton Wick
Fair, Elizabeth – The Native Heath
Farjeon, J. Jefferson – Thirteen Guests
Farrer, Katharine – The Cretan Counterfeit
Faulks, Sebastian – Pistache
Faulks, Sebastian – Faulks on Fiction
Ferguson, Rachel – The Brontes Went To Woolworths
Ferguson, Rachel – Passionate Kensington
Ferguson, Rachel – We Were Amused
Ferguson, Rachel – Evenfield
Ferguson, Rachel – A Child in the Theatre
Fergusson, Adam – The Sack of Bath
Fforde, Jasper – The Eyre Affair
Field, Eugene – The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac
Figueras, Marcelo – Kamchatka
Findlater, Jane and Mary – Crossriggs
Fisher, C.J. – When We Were Alive
Fitzgerald, Penelope – The Bookshop
Fitzgerald, Penelope – At Freddie’s
Fitzgerald, Penelope – The Blue Flower
Fitzgerald, Penelope – Offshore
Fitzgerald, Penelope – Charlotte Mew and Her Friends
Foer, Jonathan Safran – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Forbes, Esther – O, Genteel Lady
Ford, Ford Madox – The Good Soldier
Forster, E.M. – Howards End
Forster, E.M. – The Machine Stops & The Celestial Omnibus
Foschini, Lorenza – Proust’s Overcoat
Fowler, Christopher – The Book of Forgotten Authors
Fowler, Karen Joy – The Jane Austen Book Club
Fox, Dan – Limbo
Fox, Kate – Watching the English
Frame, Janet – The Lagoon
Frank, Anne – Diary: the graphic adaptation
Frankau, Pamela – A Wreath for the Enemy
Frankau, Pamela – Marriage of Harlequin
Franklin, Ruth – Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life
Fraser, Ronald – The Flying Draper
Fraser-Sampson, Guy – Major Benjy
Fraser-Sampson, Guy – Lucia on Holiday
Fraser-Sampson, Guy – Death in Profile
Frayn, Michael & David Burke – Celia’s Secret
Freese, Matthias B. – Down To A Sunless Sea
Frisby, Terence – Kisses on a Postcard
Gaarder, Jostein – The Christmas Mystery
Gallico, Paul – Love of Seven Dolls
Gallico, Paul – Jennie
Gallico, Paul – Coronation
Gallico, Paul – Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris
Gallico, Paul – Mrs. Harris Goes To New York
Gallico, Paul – Mrs. Harris, MP
Gallico, Paul – Mrs Harris Goes to Moscow
Gallico, Paul – The Foolish Immortals
Gallico, Paul – The Hand of Mary Constable
Gallico, Paul – Ludmilla
Gallico, Paul – The Lonely
Galsworthy, John – To Let
Gardam, Jane – God on the Rocks
Garner Helen – This House of Grief
Garnett, Angelica – Deceived With Kindness
Garnett, Angelica – The Unspoken Truth
Garnett, David – Aspects of Love
Garnett, David – Lady Into Fox
Garnett, David – A Man in the Zoo
Garnett, David – Two By Two
Garnett, David – The Familiar Faces
Garnett, David – No Love
Garnett, Henrietta – Family Skeletons
Gaskell, Elizabeth – Cousin Phillis
Gaskell, Elizabeth – North and South
Gavron, Asaf – Croc Attack!
Gazdanov, Gaito – The Spectre of Alexander Wolf
Gebbie, Vanessa – Words from a Glass Bubble
Gekoski, Rick – Nabokov’s Butterfly
Geras, Adele – Apricots at Midnight
Gibbons, Stella – Cold Comfort Farm
Gibbons, Stella – Westwood
Gibbons, Stella – Bassett
Gibbons, Stella – Here Be Dragons
Gibbons, Stella – Miss Linsey and Pa
Gibbons, Stella – Beside the Pearly Water
Gibbons, Stella – Enbury Heath
Gilbert, Michael – Death in Captivity
Gillard, Linda – A Lifetime Burning
Gillard, Linda – Star Gazing
Gillard, Linda – House of Silence
Ginzburg, Natalia – Sagittarius
Giono, Jean – The Man Who Planted Trees
Giono, Jean – Hill
Giono, Jean – Melville
Girouard, Mark – Enthusiasms
Givner, Joan – The Self-Portrait of a Literary Biographer
Glaspell, Susan – Brook Evans
Glass, Lisa – Prince Rupert’s Teardrop
Godden, Jon – Told in Winter
Godden, Jon – Mrs Panopoulis
Golding, Louis – Mr Emmanuel
Goldsmith, William – The Bind
Goldsworthy, Peter – Maestro
Goodings, Lennie – A Bite of the Apple
Goolden, Barbara – Return Journey
Gordon-Cumming, Jane – A Proper Family Christmas
Gordon-Cumming, Jane – The Haunted Bridge
Goudge, Elizabeth – The Middle Window
Goudge, Elizabeth – The Bird in the Tree
Grace, N.B. – High School Musical: The Book of the Film (!)
Graham, Eleanor – The Children Who Lived in a Barn
Graham, Kenneth – The Wind in the Willows
Graham, Virginia – Say Please
Graham, Virginia – Here’s How
Graham, Virginia – Consider The Years
Graves, Robert and Alan Hodge – The Long Week-End
Gray, Daniel – Scribbles in the Margins
Green, Henry – Blindness
Green, John – The Fault in Our Stars
Green, John – An Abundance of Katherines
Greenberg, Michael – Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer’s Life
Greene, Graham – Travels With My Aunt
Greene, Graham – The End of the Affair
Greene, Graham – The Human Factor
Greer, Andrew Sean – Less
Greig, Cicely – Ivy Compton Burnett: A Memoir
Grenfell, Joyce and Virginia Graham – Joyce & Ginnie
Grimmett, Neil – The Bestowing Sun
Grondahl, Jens Christian – Virginia
Grondahl, Jens Christian – Silence in October
Grondahl, Jens Christian – Often I Am Happy
Groth, Janet – The Receptionist
Gunn, Kirsty – My Katherine Mansfield Project
Gutcheon, Beth – Still Missing
Haddon, Mark – The Red House
Hall, Sarah – Mrs Fox
Hamilton, Cicely – William – an Englishman
Hamilton, Patrick – The Slaves of Solitude
Hanff, Helene – 84, Charing Cross Road
Hanff, Helene – Q’s Legacy
Hanff, Helene – Letter from New York
Hanff, Helene – Apple of My Eye
Hansford Johnson, Pamela – An Error of Judgement
Hansford Johnson, Pamela – I. Compton-Burnett
Hansford Johnson, Pamela – The Unspeakable Skipton
Hapwood, Dianne – Tea and Tranquillisers
Harding, Paul – Tinkers
Hardwick, Elizabeth – Sleepless Nights
Hardy, Thomas – Jude the Obscure
Hardy, Thomas – The Return of the Native
Hardy, Thomas – A Pair of Blue Eyes
Harman, Claire – Jane’s Fame
Harman, Claire – Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography
Harris, Alexandra – Virginia Woolf
Harrison, Melissa – All Among the Barley
Hart, Elizabeth Anna – The Runaway
Hart, Miranda – Is It Just Me?
Hartley, Jenny – Reading Groups
Hartley, L.P. – The Go-Between
Hartley, L.P. – Simonetta Perkins
Hartley, L.P. – The Boat
Hartley, L.P. – A Perfect Woman
Hartley, L.P. – The Shrimp and the Anemone
Hastings, Milo M. – The City of Endless Night
Haushofer, Marlen – The Wall
Hay, Mavis Doriel – Death on the Cherwell
Hayes, Alfred – My Face For The World To See
Hayes, Bill – Insomniac City
Heyer, Georgette – April Lady
Hill, Susan – The Battle for Gullywith
Hill, Susan – Howards End is on the Landing
Hill, Susan – Jacob’s Room is Full of Books
Hill, Susan – The Beacon
Hill, Susan – In the Springtime of the Year
Hill, Susan – A Kind Man
Hill, Susan – Black Sheep
Hill, Susan – The Magic Apple Tree
Hill, Susan – A Change for the Better
Hill, Susan – The Bird of Night
Hillis, Marjorie – Live Alone and Like It
Hills, Ruth Mary – Scar Tissue
Hillyer, Richard – Country Boy
Hiraide, Takashi – The Guest Cat
Hoban, Russell – Turtle Diary
Hoban, Russell – Amaryllis Day and Night
Hocking, Mary – An Irrelevant Woman
Hodgins, Eric – Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House
Holme, Thea – The Carlyles at Home
Holroyd, Michael – On Wheels
Holtby, Winifred – Virginia Woolf
Holtby, Winifred – The Crowded Street
Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Hosseini, Khaled – The Kite Runner
Howe, Bea – A Fairy Leapt Upon My Knee
Hrabal, Bohumil – Closely Observed Trains
Huggett, Richard – The Truth About ‘Pygmalion’
Hughes, Molly – A London Child of the 1870s
Hughes, Molly – A London Family Between the Wars
Hughes, Ted – Birthday Letters
Hull, Ethel M. – The Sheik
Hull, John M. – Touching The Rock
Hull, Richard – Excellent Intentions
Hull, Richard – The Murder of My Aunt
Humble, Nicola – The Feminine Middlebrow Novel
Humphreys, Helen – Nocturne
Hunt, Rebecca – Mr. Chartwell
Huxley, Aldous – Crome Yellow
Huxley, Aldous – The Genius and the Goddess
Huxley, Aldous – Vulgarity in Literature
Isherwood, Christopher – Mr. Norris Changes Trains
Isherwood, Christopher – Prater Violet
Ishiguro, Kazuo – Never Let Me Go
Ishiguro, Kazuo – The Remains of the Day
Ivey, Eowyn – The Snow Child
Ivey, Eowyn – To The Bright Edge of the World
Jackson, Shirley – The Haunting of Hill House
Jackson, Shirley – The Bird’s Nest
Jackson, Shirley – The Sundial
Jackson, Shirley – Hangsaman
Jackson, Shirley – The Road Through The Wall
Jackson, Shirley – We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Jackson, Shirley – Life Among the Savages
Jackson, Shirley – Raising Demons
Jackson, Shirley – The Lottery and other stories
Jackson, Shirley – Let Me Tell You
James, Clive – Latest Readings
James, Henry – The Turn of the Screw
Jamie, Kathleen – Findings
Jansson, Tove – A Winter Book
Jansson, Tove – Fair Play
Jansson, Tove – The Summer Book
Jansson, Tove – The True Deceiver
Jansson, Tove – Travelling Light
Jansson, Tove – Art in Nature
Jansson, Tove – The Listener
Jansson, Tove – Letters From Klara
Jansson, Tove – Moominpappa at Sea
Jansson, Tove – Sun City
Jansson, Tove – Notes from an Island
Jean, Raymond – Reader For Hire
Jenkins, Herbert – Patricia Brent, Spinster
Jenkins, Herbert – The Return of Alfred
Jenkins, Michael – A House in Flanders
Jerome, Jerome K. – The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
Jerome, Jerome K. – Three Men in a Boat
Jerome, Jerome K. – Three Men on the Bummel
Jesse, F Tennyson – A Pin To See The Peepshow
Jesse, F Tennyson – The White Riband
Jesse, Stella Tennyson – Eve in Egypt
Johnson, Celia Blue – Dancing With Mrs Dalloway
Johnston, Jennifer – The Gingerbread Woman
Jolley, Elizabeth – Foxybaby
Jordan, Elizabeth – As Cooks Go
Jordan, Robert – The Eye of the World
Joseph, Michael – Cat’s Company
Kalanithi, Paul – When Breath Becomes Air
Kaling, Mindy – Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Kaling, Mindy – Why Not Me?
Kafka, Franz – Metamorphosis
Karjalainen, Tuula – Tove Jansson: Work and Love
Kaufman, Andrew – The Tiny Wife
Kaufman, Andrew – All My Friends Are Superheroes
Kawamura, Genki – If Cats Disappeared from the World
Kaye-Smith, Sheila – All The Books of My Life
Kaye-Smith, Sheila and G.B. Stern – Talking of Jane Austen
Kaye-Smith, Sheila and G.B. Stern – More Talk of Jane Austen
Keane, Molly – Young Entry
Keegan, Claire – Foster
Keller, Helen – The World I Live In
Kells, Stuart – Shakespeare’s Library
Kendal, Felicity – White Cargo
Kennedy, A.L. – On Writing
Kennedy, Margaret – Jane Austen
Kennedy, Margaret – Together and Apart
Kennedy, Margaret – The Outlaws on Parnassus
Kennedy, Margaret – Lucy Carmichael
Kennedy, Raymond – Ride a Cockhorse
Kennedy, Richard – A Boy at the Hogarth Press
Kerby, Susan Alice – Miss Carter and the Ifrit
Kerby, Susan Alice – Mr Kronion
Keret, Etgar – Suddenly, A Knock on the Door
Keret, Etgar – The Seven Good Years
Kerr, Jean – Please Don’t Eat The Daisies
Kesson, Jessie – Another Time, Another Place
Kimbrough, Emily – We Followed Our Hearts to Hollywood
Kingsolver, Barbara – The Poisonwood Bible
Kingsolver, Barbara – Pigs in Heaven
Kingsolver, Barbara – Prodigal Summer
Kingsolver, Barbara – Small Wonder: Essays
Kipling, Rudyard – The Village That Voted the World Was Flat
Klosterman, Chuck – But What If We’re Wrong?
Knight, Sam – The Premonitions Bureau
Knights, Sarah – Bloomsbury’s Outsider
Knox, E.V. – This Other Eden
Koppel, Lily – The Red Leather Diary
Kosztolányi, Dezső – Skylark
Kundera, Milan – Immortality
Kundera, Milan – Identity
Kundera, Milan – The Joke
Kundera, Milan – The Curtain
Kundera, Milan – The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kundera, Milan – Ignorance
Laing, Olivia – To The River
Laing, Olivia – The Lonely City
Laing, Sarah – Mansfield and Me
Langley, Noel – The Land of Green Ginger
Lappin, Tom – Parties

Laski, Marghanita – Little Boy Lost
Laski, Marghanita – Love on the Supertax
Laski, Marghanita – To Bed With Grand Music
Last, Nella – Nella Last’s War
Last, Nella – Nella Last’s Peace
Laurence, Margaret – A Jest of God
Laurence, Margaret – The Diviners
Laurence, Margaret – The Fire-Dwellers
Lawrence, D.H. – The Fox
Lawson, Mary – Crow Lake
Lawson, Mary – The Other Side of the Bridge
Lawson, Mary – A Town Called Solace
Lawson, Mary – Road Ends
Leacock, Stephen – Literary Lapses
Leacock, Stephen – Over the Footlights and Other Fancies
Leacock, Stephen – Our Heritage of Liberty
Leacock, Stephen – My Discovery of England
Leacock, Stephen – The Iron Man and the Tin Woman
Leduc, Violette – The Lady and the Little Fox Fur
Lee, Harper – To Kill A Mockingbird
Lee, Harper – Go Set a Watchman (Colin’s review)
Lee, Hermione – A Very Short Introduction to Biography
Lee, Laurie – Cider With Rosie
LeFanu, Sarah – Dreaming of Rose
Lehmann, John – Thrown To The Woolfs
Lehmann, John – In the Purely Pagan Sense
Lehmann, Rosamond – Dusty Answer
Leigh, Mike – Abigail’s Party
Leighton, Clare – Four Hedges
Lelord, Francois – Hector and the Search for Happiness
L’Engle, Madeleine – A Wrinkle in Time
L’Engle, Madeleine – Two-Part Invention
Lesser, Wendy – Why I Read
Lessing, Doris – The Fifth Child
Lessing, Doris – Particularly Cats
Leverson, Ada – Love’s Shadow
Leverson, Ada – Love at Second Sight
Levit, Anat – Seven Cats I Have Loved
Levy, Deborah – Stardust Nation
Lewis, C.S. – A Grief Observed
Lewis, C.S. – Surprised By Joy
Lewis, Herbert Clyde – Gentleman Overboard
Lewis, Janet – The Wife of Martin Guerre
Lewis, Sinclair – Free Air
Lickorish Quinn, Karina – Shrinking Violet
Light, Alison – Forever England
Light, Alison – Mrs Woolf and the Servants
Lindsay, David – The Haunted Woman
Lindsay, David – Sphinx
Lindsay, Joan – Picnic at Hanging Rock
Lister, S.E. – The Immortals
Litvinoff, Emanuel – The Lost Europeans
Litvinoff, Emanuel – Journey Through A Small Planet
Lively, Penelope – Moon Tiger
Loftus, David – Diary of a Lone Twin
Logan, John – Peter and Alice
Long, James – Ferney
Longford, Christine – Making Conversation
Loos, Anita – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Lovell, Henrietta – Infused
Lyman, Monty – The Remarkable Life of the Skin
Lyman, Monty – The Painful Truth
Macaulay, Rose – Crewe Train
Macaulay, Rose – Keeping Up Appearances
Macaulay, Rose – Dangerous Ages
Macaulay, Rose – Personal Pleasures
Macaulay, Rose – The World My Wilderness
Macaulay, Rose – The Towers of Trebizond
Macaulay, Rose – Potterism
Macaulay, Rose – Mystery at Geneva
MacDonald, Betty – The Egg and I
MacDonald, Betty – The Plague and I
MacDonald, Betty – Anybody Can Do Anything
MacDonald, Betty – Onions in the Stew
Machado, Carmen Maria – In The Dream House
Mackail, Denis – The Majestic Mystery
Mackail, Denis – Chelbury Abbey
Mackail, Denis – Ian and Felicity
Mackail, Denis – By Auction
Mackail, Denis – What Next?
Mackenzie, Compton – Poor Relations
Mackenzie, Compton – Buttercups and Daisies
Mackenzie, Compton – Thin Ice
Maclaren-Ross, Julian – Of Love and Hunger
Madden, Deirdre – Molly Fox’s Birthday
Madden, Deirdre – Nothing is Black
Madden, Deirdre – The Birds of the Innocent Wood
Magorian, Michelle – Goodnight Mister Tom
Malcolm, Janet – Two Lives
Malcolm, Janet – In the Freud Archives
Malcolm, Janet – Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession
Malcolm, Janet – The Silent Woman
Malcolm, Janet – Forty-One False Starts
Malik, Rachel – Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves
Mangan, Lucy – Bookworm
Manguel, Alberto – Stevenson Under The Palm Trees
Manguel, Alberto – The Library at Night
Manguel, Alberto – A Reader on Reading
Manguel, Alberto – A Reading Diary
Mankowitz, Wolf – A Kid For Two Farthings
Mannin, Ethel – Rolling in the Dew
Mannin, Ethel – Cactus
Manning, Olivia – School For Love
Manning, Olivia – The Great Fortune
Manning, Rosemary – The Chinese Garden
Manning, Sarra – London, With Love
Mansfield, Katherine – Selected Stories
Mansfield, Katherine – In a German Pension
Mansfield, Katherine – Something Childish and other stories
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia – Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Marquis, Don – The Best of Archy and Mehitabel
Marsh, Eileen – The Unnatural Behaviour of Mrs Hooker
Marsh, Ngaio – Opening Night
Marshall, Bruce – Father Malachy’s Miracle
Martin Currey, Stella – One Woman’s Year
Martinetti, Anne et al – Agatha: the real life of Agatha Christie
Masud, Noreen – A Flat Place
Maugham, W. Somerset – Up At The Villa
Maurois, Andre – The Silence of Colonel Bramble
Maxtone Graham, Ysenda – Mr. Tibbits’s Catholic School
Maxtone Graham, Ysenda – The Real Mrs Miniver
Maxtone Graham, Ysenda – Terms and Conditions
Maxwell, Gavin – Ring of Bright Water
Maxwell, William – They Came Like Swallows
Maxwell, William – So Long, See You Tomorrow
Maxwell, William – Time Will Darken It
Maxwell, William & Sylvia Townsend Warner – The Element of Lavishness
Maxwell, William & Eudora Welty – What There Is To Say We Have Said
Maxwell, W.B. – Spinster of this Parish
May, Katherine – The Electricity of Every Living Thing
Mayor, F.M. – The Rector’s Daughter
McCutcheon, George Barr – Brewster’s Millions
McElwee, William – The House
McEwan, Ian – On Chesil Beach
McEwan, Ian – Black Dogs
McEwan, Ian – Amsterdam
McGill, John – The Most Glorified Strip of Bunting
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis – Greensleeves
McHaffie, Hazel – Remember Remember
McKenney, Ruth – My Sister Eileen
McLaren, Duncan – Looking For Enid
McNeill, Janet – The Small Widow
McNeill, Janet – Tea at Four O’Clock
Medvei, Cornelius – Caroline
Medvei, Cornelius – Mr Thunderbug
Melbye, Eric – Tru
Mercer, Jeremy – Books, Baguettes, and Bedbugs
Merriman, Andy – Margaret Rutherford
Meyer, M.M. – H.G. Wells and His Family
Michaels, Anne – Fugitive Pieces
Michaels, Leonard – The Men’s Club
Middleton Murry, J. – Pencillings
Mieville, China – The City and The City
Mieville, China – This Census-Taker
Miles, Susan – Lettice Delmer
Miller, Arthur – All My Sons
Mills, Magnus – The Maintenance of Headway
Mills, Magnus – All Quiet on the Orient Express
Mills, Magnus – The Restraint of Beasts
Mills, Magnus – Screwtop Thompson
Mills, Magnus – Three To See The King
Mills, Magnus – The Forensic Records Society
Milne, A. A. – It’s Too Late Now
Milne, A. A. – Year In, Year Out
Milne, A.A. – Two People
Milne, A.A. – Once A Week
Milne, A.A. – The Dover Road
Milne, A.A. – Mr. Pim Passes By
Milne, A.A. – Not That It Matters
Milne, A.A. – Lovers in London
Milne, A.A. – The Red House Mystery
Milne, A.A. – Other People’s Lives
Milne, A.A. – Winnie the Pooh
Milne, Angela – One Year’s Time
Milne, Christopher – The Enchanted Places
Mitchell, David – The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Mitchell, Gladys – Speedy Death
Mitford, Jessica – Hons and Rebels
Mitford, Nancy – The Pursuit of Love
Mitford, Nancy – Frederick the Great
Mitford, Nancy – Pigeon Pie
The Mitfords – Letters Between Six Sisters (a)
The Mitfords – Letters Between Six Sisters (b)
Montgomery, L.M. – Anne of Green Gables
Montgomery, L.M. – Anne of Avonlea
Moore, Brian – The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Moore, Brian – The Great Victorian Collection
Moore, Brian – The Doctor’s Wife
Moore, G.E. – Conversations in Ebury Street
Moore, Doris Langley – My Caravaggio Style
Moore, John – Brensham Village
Moore, Lorrie – Self-Help
Moore, Lorris – Who Will Run The Frog Hospital?
Moran, Caitlin – Moranthology
Morgan, Charles – The Empty Room
Morley, Christopher – Parnassus on Wheels
Morley, Christopher – The Haunted Bookshop
Morley, Christopher – Safety Pins
Morrall, Clare – When The Floods Came
Mortimer, Penelope – The Pumpkin Eater
Mortimer, Penelope – The Home
Mortimer, Penelope – My Friend Says It’s Bullet-Proof
Moshfegh, Ottessa – Eileen
Mosley, Nicholas – Julian Grenfell
Munro, Alice – Too Much Happiness
Murdoch, Iris – The Sandcastle
Murdoch, Iris – The Sea, The Sea
Murnighan, Jack – Beowulf on the Beach
Murray, Margaret – The Witch-Cult in Western Europe
Murray, Rosalind – The Happy Tree
Murray, Simone – Mixed Media
Myers, Elizabeth – A Well Full of Leaves
Myers, Elizabeth – Mrs Christopher
Myers, L.H. – Strange Glory
Myron, Vicki – Dewey
Nabokov, Vladimir – Lolita
Nathan, Robert – Mr Whittle and the Morning Star
Nathan, Robert – The Train in the Meadow
Nathan, Robert – Stonecliff
Nathan, Robert – The Enchanted Voyage
Nathan, Robert – The Colour of Evening
Natsukawa, Sosuke – The Cat Who Saved Books
Nemirovsky, Irene – Suite Francaise
Nemirovsky, Irene – David Golder
Nemirovsky, Irene – The Misunderstanding
Nesbit, E. – The Railway Children
Nesbit, E. – The Enchanted Castle
Nesbit, E. – The Lark
Nesbit, E. – My School Days
Nesbit, E. – The Red House
Nicholls, David – One Day
Nichols, Beverley – Merry Hall
Nichols, Beverley – Down the Garden Path
Nichols, Beverley – Are They The Same At Home?
Nichols, Beverley – A Thatched Roof
Nichols, Beverley – Uncle Samson
Nichols, Beverley – For Adults Only
Nichols, Beverley – The Powers That Be
Nichols, Beverley – Down the Kitchen Sink
Niffenegger, Audrey – The Time Traveler’s Wife
Niffenegger, Audrey – Her Fearful Symmetry
North, Gil – Sergeant Cluff Stands Firm
Norton, Mary – The Bread and Butter Stories
Obama, Michelle – Becoming
O’Brien, Darcy – A Way of Life, Like Any Other
O’Farrell, Maggie – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
O’Grady, Rohan – Let’s Kill Uncle
Oliphant, Laurence – Piccadilly
Oliver, Jane and Ann Stafford – Business as Usual
Olivier, Edith – The Love Child
Olivier, Edith – The Love-Child (Hesperus competition entry)
Olivier, Edith – The Love Child (various)
Olivier, Edith – Night Thoughts of a Country Landlady
Olivier, Edith – Country Moods and Tenses
Olivier, Edith – The Underground River
Olivier, Edith – As Far As Jane’s Grandmothers
Olivier, Laurence – On Acting
Olmi, Veronique – Beside the Sea
Orange, Ursula – Company in the Evening
Orange, Ursula – Begin Again
Orwell, George – Homage to Catalonia
Orwell, George – Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Osborne, Charles – The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie
Otsuka, Julie – The Buddha in the Attic
Otten, Willem Jan – The Portrait
Oyeyemi, Helen – The Icarus Girl
Oyeyemi, Helen – White is for Witching
Oyeyemi, Helen – Boy, Snow, Bird
Oyeyemi, Helen – The Opposite House
Oyeyemi, Helen – Mr Fox
Paasilinna, Arto – The Year of the Hare
Packer, J.I. – I Want To Be A Christian
Panter-Downes, Mollie – One Fine Day
Panter-Downes, Mollie – Minnie’s Room: The Peacetime Stories
Panter-Downes, Mollie – London War Notes
Panter-Downes, Mollie – My Husband Simon
Panter-Downes, Mollie – The Shoreless Sea
Panter-Downes, Mollie – Storm Bird
Papadiamantis, Alexandros – The Murderess
Parks, Tim – Where I’m Reading From
Parks, Tim – Pen in Hand
Parmar, Priya – Vanessa and Her Sister
Paul, Pamela – My Life With Bob
Pazinski, Piotr – The Boarding House
Peake, Mervyn – Mr Pye
Pearce, Philippa – Tom’s Midnight Garden
Pearce, Philippa – What The Neighbours Did
Peck, Winifred – Bewildering Cares
Pennac, Daniel – Better Than Life
Penney, Stef – The Tenderness of Wolves
Perenyi, Eleanor – More Was Lost
Perkins Gilman, Charlotte – The Yellow Wallpaper
Petre, Diana – The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley
Petterson, Per – Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes
Pheby, Alex – Grace
Pine, Emilie – Notes to Self
Playfair, Jocelyn – A House in the Country
Porter, Adrian – The Perfect Pest
Portobello, Petronella – How To Be A Deb’s Mum
Potter, Beatrix – The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
Powys, T.F. – Mark Only
Pratchett, Terry – Going Postal
Priestley, J.B. – Delight
Priestley, J.B. – I For One
Pritchett, V.S. – A Cab at the Door
Pym, Barbara – Some Tame Gazelle
Pym, Barbara – The Sweet Dove Died
Queneau, Raymond – Exercises in Style
Quint, Michel – Strange Gardens
Radden Keefe, Patrick – Empire of Pain
Rae, Issa – Awkward Black Girl
Rakoff, Joanna – My Salinger Year
Ransome, Arthur – Swallows and Amazons
Raverat, Gwen – Period Piece
Read, Herbert – The Green Child
Read, Miss – Gossip From Thrush Green
Reed, Myrtle – The Spinster Book
Remarque, Erich Maria – All Quiet on the Western Front
Rentzenbrink, Cathy – Dear Reader
Resnik, Muriel – House Happy
Rhodes, Anthony – Sword of Bone
Rhys, Jean – Voyage in the Dark
Rice, Eva – The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
Rice, Eva – The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp
Rice, Eva – Love Notes From Freddie
Riddell, Marjorie – M for Mother
Ridge, Antonia – Family Album
Rieff, David – Swimming in a Sea of Death
Riley, Gwendoline – Cold Water
Ritchie, Charles – The Siren Years
Roberts, Richard Owain
Robertson, E. Arnot – Cullum
Robertson, Celia – Who Was Sophie?
Robinson, Marilynne – Gilead
Robinson, Marilynne – Home
Robinson, Marilynne – Lila
Robinson, Marilynne – Jack
Robinson, Marilynne – Housekeeping
Robinson, Mary – The Art of Gardening
Ronson, Jon – The Psychopath Test
Ronson, Jon – Frank
Ronson, Jon – Them
Rose, Phyllis – The Shelf
Rose, Phyllis – The Year of Reading Proust
Rosenthal, Amy – On The Rocks
Rostenberg, Leona & Madeleine Stern – Old Books, Rare Friends
Ross, Sinclair – As For Me and My House
Rowling, J. K. – The Harry Potter series
Rowling, J. K. – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Royle, Nicholas (ed.) – The Art of the Novel
Royle, Nicholas – White Spines
Russell, R.B. – Fifty Forgotten Books
Rutter, Esther – This Golden Fleece
Sacks, Oliver – The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat
Sacks, Oliver – The Island of the Colorblind
Sacks, Oliver – Hallucinations
Sacks, Oliver – Seeing Voices
Sacks, Olive – Gratitude
Sacks, Oliver – On The Move
Sacks, Oliver – An Anthropologist on Mars
Sacks, Oliver – Awakenings
Sacks, Oliver – The Last Interview
Sackville-West, Vita – The Heir
Sackville-West, Vita – All Passion Spent
Sackville-West, Vita – The Easter Party
Sackville-West, Vita – Grand Canyon
Sackville-West, Vita – The Edwardians
Sackville-West, Vita – Dearest Andrew
Sackville-West, Vita – The Land
Sackville-West, Vita – The Death of Noble Godavary
Sackville-West, Vita – Heritage
Sagan, Francoise – Bonjour Tristesse
Sagan, Francoise – Sunlight on Cold Water
Saki – The Penguin Complete Saki
Saki – A Shot in the Dark
Saki – The Unbearable Bassington
Saki – The Westminster Alice
Saki – When William Came
Saki – Reginald in Russia
Saki – The Chronicles of Clovis
Salamon, Julie – The Devil’s Candy
Sales, Leigh – Any Ordinary Day
Sam, Anna – Checkout: A Life on the Tills
Sangster, Alfred – The Brontes
Sankovitch, Nina – Tolstoy and the Purple Chair
Sanxay Holding, Elizabeth – The Blank Wall
Sarton, May – The Fur Person
Sarton, May – The Small Room
Sarton, May – The House by the Sea
Saumarez Smith, John – A Spy in the Bookshop
Scarlett, Susan – Babbacombe’s
Scharlieb, Mary – What It Means To Marry
Schein, Elyse & Paula Bernstein – Identical Strangers
Schreiner, Olive – The Story of an African Farm
Schuyler, James – Alfred and Guinevere
Sedaris, David – Me Talk Pretty One Day
Sedaris, David – Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Sedaris, David – Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls
Sedaris, David – Naked
Sellers, Susan – Vanessa and Virginia
Sestero, Greg and Tom Bissell – The Disaster Artist
Seth, Vikram – An Equal Music
Seward, Desmond – Renishaw Hall
Shaffer, Mary Ann – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Shapiro, James – Contested Will
Sharp, Margery – Cluny Brown
Sharp, Margery – The Eye of Love
Sharp, Margery – The Gipsy in the Parlour
Sharp, Margery – Britannia Mews
Sharp, Margery – Lise Lillywhite
Sharp, Margery – The Nutmeg Tree
Sharp, Margery – The Stone of Chastity
Sharp, Margery – The Nymph and the Nobleman
Sharp, Margery – In Pious Memory
Sharp, Margery – Four Gardens
Shaw, Ali – The Girl With Glass Feet
Shaw, George Bernard – Man and Superman
Shaw, Julia – The Memory Illusion
Sheckley, Robert – Immortality, Inc.
Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein
Sheridan, Richard B. – The Rivals
Sherriff, R.C. – The Fortnight in September
Sherriff, R.C. – Greengates
Sherriff, R.C. – The Hopkins Manuscript
Sherriff, R.C. – The Wells of St Mary’s
Sherriff, R.C. – No Leading Lady
Sidgwick, Mrs Alfred – Cynthia’s Way
Sidgwick, Mrs Alfred – None-Go-By
Siegfried Sassoon – Letters to Max Beerbohm
Silvera, Adam – They Both Die at the End
Silvera, Adam – The First To Die at the End
Silvera, Adam – History Is All You Left Me
Simenon, Georges – Maigret’s Revolver
Sinclair, May – Life and Death of Harriett Frean
Sinclair, May – Uncanny Stories
Sinclair, May – The Three Sisters
Sinclair, May – Mr Waddington of Wyck
Sinclair, May – The Tree of Heaven
Sinclair, May – Anne Severn and the Fieldings
Sitwell, Osbert – Dickens
Sjon – The Blue Fox
Skinner, Cornelia Otis – Popcorn
Skinner, Cornelia Otis – Nuts in May
Skinner, Cornelia Otis – Soap Behind The Ears
Skinner, Cornelia Otis – Excuse It, Please!
Smart, Amy Elizabeth – All Roads Lead to Austen
Smith, Ali – Artful
Smith, Betty – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Dodie – I Capture the Castle
Smith, Dodie – The Town in Bloom
Smith, Dodie – Look Back With Love
Smith, Dodie – Look Back With Mixed Feelings
Smith, Dodie – Dear Octopus
Smith, Dodie – A Tale of Two Families
Smith, Dodie – It Ends With Revelations
Smith, Dodie – The Girl from the Candle-Lit Bath
Smith, Dorothy Evelyn – Miss Plum and Miss Penny
Smith, Dorothy Evelyn – O, The Brave Music
Smith, Dorothy Evelyn – Beyond the Gates
Smith, Dorothy Evelyn – Proud Citadel
Smith, Emma – The Great Western Beach
Smith, Emma – Maidens’ Trip
Smith, Thorne – Turnabout
Smith, Zadie – Swing Time
Smyth, Katharine – All The Lives We Ever Lived
Snow, C.P. – The Masters
Solomon, Laura – Alternative Medicine
Solomons, Natasha – Mr. Rosenblum’s List
Sopel, Jon – If Only They Didn’t Speak English
Southey, Donald – I, Messiah
Spain, Nancy – Cinderella Goes to the Morgue
Spalding, Frances – Insights: The Bloomsbury Group
Spark, Muriel – The Driver’s Seat
Spark, Muriel – Loitering With Intent
Spark, Muriel – Memento Mori
Spark, Muriel – The Abbess of Crewe
Spark, Muriel – The Takeover
Spark, Muriel – The Ballad of Peckham Rye
Spark, Muriel – The Only Problem
Spark, Muriel – Reality and Dreams
Spark, Muriel – Territorial Rights
Spark, Muriel – Symposium
Spark, Muriel – The Hothouse by the East River
Spark, Muriel – Curriculum Vitae
Spark, Muriel – The Mandelbaum Gate
Spence, Annie – Dear Farenheit 451
Sprigge, Elizabeth – The Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett
Spufford, Francis – Golden Hill
Spurling, Hilary – La Grande Thérèse
Stacey, Tom – The Man Who Knew Everything
Stegner, Wallace – The Spectator Bird
Stein, Gertrude – Blood on the Dining-Room Floor
Steinbeck, John – The Pearl
Steinbeck, John – Cannery Row
Stephenson, Simon – Let Not The Waves of the Sea
Stern, G.B. – Ten Days of Christmas
Stern, G.B. – Dolphin Cottage
Stern, G.B. – For All We Know
Stern, G.B. – The Patience of a Saint
Stevens, Michael – V. Sackville-West
Stevens, Nell – Bleaker House
Stevens, Nell – Mrs Gaskell & Me
Stevenson, D.E. – Miss Buncle’s Book
Stevenson, D.E. – Mrs. Tim of the Regiment
Stevenson, D.E. – Mrs Tim Carries On
Stevenson, D.E. – Five Windows
Stockett, Kathryn – The Help
Stonier, G.W. – Shaving Through the Blitz
Stopes, Marie – Married Love
Strachan, Mari – The Earth Hums in B Flat
Strachey, Julia – Cheerful Weather for the Wedding
Strachey, Julia – Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (readalong)
Streatfeild, Noel – Saplings
Streatfeild, Noel – Tea By The Nursery Fire
Streatfeild, Noel – I Ordered A Table For Six
Struther, Jan – Mrs. Miniver
Struther, Jan – Try Anything Twice
Summerscale, Kate – The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
Surendra, Rajiv – The Elephants in My Backyard
Sutcliff, Rosemary – Blue Remembered Hills
Swift, Graham – Mothering Sunday
Syjuco, Miguel – Ilustrado
Szymborska, Wislawa – People on a Bridge
Talbot, Laura – The Gentlewomen
Tangye, Derek – A Cat in the Window
Tanizaki, Junichiro – Naomi
Taylor, Alan – Appointment in Arezzo
Taylor, Elizabeth – Angel
Taylor, Elizabeth – Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Taylor, Elizabeth – A Game of Hide and Seek
Taylor, Elizabeth – At Mrs. Lippincote’s
Taylor, Elizabeth – A View of the Harbour
Taylor, Elizabeth – The Soul of Kindness
Taylor, Elizabeth – A Wreath of Roses
Taylor, Elizabeth – The Wedding Group
Taylor, Elizabeth – Palladian
Taylor, Elizabeth – Blaming
Tey, Josephine – Brat Farrar
Theriault, Denis – The Peculiar of a Lonely Postman
Thirkell, Angela – High Rising
Thomas, Edward – Oxford
Thomas, Helen – As It Was and World Without End
Thomas, Simon – Love, Interrupted
Thomas Ellis, Alice – Unexplained Laughter
Thomas Ellis, Alice – The Birds of the Air
Thomasson, Anna – A Curious Friendship
Thorton, Rosy – Hearts and Minds
Thwaite, Ann – A.A. Milne: His Life
Thwaite, Ann – Running in the Corridors
Tickell, Jerrard – Appointment With Venus
Todd, Barbara Euphan – Miss Ranskill Comes Home
Todd, Janet – Death and the Maidens: Fanny Wollstonecraft and the Shelley Circle
Tomalin, Claire – Katherine Mansfield : A Secret Life
Tomalin, Claire – A Life of My Own
Toole, John Kennedy – A Confederacy of Dunces
Toussaint, Jean-Philippe – Making Love
Tovey, Doreen – Raining Cats and Donkeys
Townsend, Sue – Adrian Mole series
Townsend, Sue – The Queen and I
Trapido, Barbara – Brother of the More Famous Jack
Trapido, Barbara – Noah’s Ark
Trapido, Barbara – Temples of Delight
Trefusis, Violet – Echo
Trefusis, Violet – Hunt the Slipper
Trench, John – Dishonoured Bones
Trevelyan, G.E. – Appius and Virginia
Trevelyan, G.E. – Two Thousand Million Man-Power
Trevelyan, G.E. – William’s Wife
Trevor, William – The Story of Lucy Gault
Trillin, Calvin – Tepper Isn’t Going Out
Trillin, Calvin – Deadline Poet
Trillin, Calvin – About Alice
Trillin, Calvin – Floater
Trillin, Calvin – Remembering Denny
Trillin, Calvin – Family Man
Trollope, Anthony – The Warden
Truss, Lynne – Making the Cat Laugh
Tsiolkas, Christos – The Slap
Tutton, Diana – Guard Your Daughters
Tutton, Diana – The Young Ones
Tutton, Diana – Mamma
Vanbrugh, Irene – To Tell My Story
Vandenbroucke, Brecht – White Cube
Vercors – Sylva
Verhulst, Dimitri – Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill
Vickers, Salley – Miss Garnet’s Angel
Villalobos, Juan Pablo – Down the Rabbit Hole
Vincent, Lady Kitty – Gin & Ginger
Visman, Janni – Yellow
Visman, Janni – Sex Education
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Enchanted April
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Caravaners
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Christopher & Columbus
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Father
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Introduction to Sally
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Mr. Skeffington
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Elizabeth and Her German Garden
von Arnim, Elizabeth – All the Dogs of My Life
von Arnim, Elizabeth – In the Mountains
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Benefactress
von Arnim, Elizabeth – Vera
von Arnim, Elizabeth – The Jasmine Farm
Vosper, Frank – Murder on the Second Floor
Voysey, Sheridan – Resurrection Year
Voysey, Sheridan – The Making of Us
Wagman-Geller, Marlene – Once Again to Zelda
Walker, Ted – The High Path
Wallace, Danny – Yes Man
Wallace, Marjorie – The Silent Twins
Waller, John – A Time to Dance, A Time to Die
Walmsley, Leo – Love in the Sun
Walmsley, Leo – The Golden Waterwheel
Walpole, Hugh – The Castle of Otranto
Wang, Phil – Side Splitter
Ward, A.C. – A Literary Journey Through Wartime Britain
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – Lolly Willowes
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – A Spirit Rises
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – Summer Will Show
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – Time Importuned
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – Opus 7
Warner, Sylvia Townsend and William Maxwell – The Element of Lavishness
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – Jane Austen
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – With The Hunted
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – The Corner That Held Them
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – The True Heart
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – The Museum of Cheats
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – Swans on an Autumn River
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – The Cat’s Cradle Book
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – The Innocent and the Guilty
Warner, Sylvia Townsend – T.H. White: A Biography
Waterfield, Giles – The Long Afternoon
Waters, Sarah – The Little Stranger
Waters, Sarah – The Night Watch
Waters, Sarah – The Paying Guests
Waugh, Evelyn – Put Out More Flags
Waugh, Evelyn – The Loved One
Waugh, Evelyn – Scoop
Waugh, Evelyn – Vile Bodies
Webb, Mary – Gone To Earth
Webb, Robert – Come Again
Webster, Jean – Daddy Long-legs
Weedman, Lauren – Miss Fortune
Weir, Rosemary – Albert’s World Tour
Weir, Rosemary – Albert and the Dragonettes
Welty, Eudora – The Optimist’s Daughter
Welty, Eudora – Delta Wedding
West, Elizabeth – Hovel in the Hills
West, Nathanael – Miss Lonelyhearts
Westcott, Glenway – The Pilgrim Hawk
Westin, Boel – Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words
Wharton, Edith – The Age of Innocence
Whipple, Dorothy – Someone at a Distance
Whipple, Dorothy – The Closed Door and other stories
Whipple, Dorothy – Every Good Deed
Whipple, Dorothy – The Priory
Whipple, Dorothy – Random Commentary
Whipple, Dorothy – High Wages
Whipple, Dorothy – Because of the Lockwoods
Whistler, Laurence – The Initials in the Heart
White, Ethel Lina – The Wheel Spins
White, T.H. – Mistress Masham’s Repose
Whitechurch, V.L. – Canon in Residence
Whitechurch, V.L. – First and Last
Wicha, Marcin – Things I Didn’t Throw Out
Wigfall, Clare – The Loudest Sound and Nothing
Wilde, Oscar – The Importance of Being Earnest
Wilde, Oscar – The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wilder, Laura Ingalls – The First Four Years (guest review)
Wilkin, Jen – None Like Him
Wilkinson, Sheena – Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau
Willard, Barbara – The Dogs Do Bark
Williams, John – Stoner
Wilson, Edmund – I Thought of Daisy
Wilson, Ethel – Hetty Dorval
Wilson, Ethel – Swamp Angel
Wilson, Ethel – Love and Salt Water
Winman, Sarah – When God Was A Rabbit
Winterson, Jeanette – The Gap of Time
Wiseman, Robert – Quirkology
Wix, Katy – Delicacy
Wodehouse, P.G. – Indiscretions of Archie
Wodehouse, P.G. – Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen
Wodehouse, P.G. – Right Ho, Jeeves
Wodehouse, P.G. – Bill the Conqueror
Wodehouse, P.G. – Laughing Gas
Wodehouse, P.G. – The Adventures of Sally
Wodehouse, P.G. – Eggs, Beans and Crumpets
Wodehouse, P.G. – Mr Mulliner Speaking
Wolf, Christa – The Quest for Christa T
Wolff, Tobias – In the Garden of the North American Martyrs
Wolff-Mönckeberg, Mathilde – On The Other Side
Wong, Claire – The Runaway
Wood, Laura – A Snowfall of Silver
Woolf, Leonard & Trekkie Ritchie Parsons – Love Letters
Woolf, Virginia – Flush
Woolf, Virginia – To The Lighthouse
Woolf, Virginia – Orlando
Woolf, Virginia – The London Scene
Woolf, Virginia – A Room of One’s Own
Woolf, Virginia – Jacob’s Room
Woolf, Virginia – Essays on the Self
Woolf, Virginia – Roger Fry: a Biography
Wren, Jenny – Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl
Wyndham, Francis – The Other Garden
Wyndham, John – Trouble With Lichen
Yates, Richard – Revolutionary Road
Yates, Richard – The Easter Parade
Yee, Chiang – The Silent Traveller in Oxford
Young, Angela – Speaking of Love
Young, E.H. – Miss Mole
Young, E.H. – William
Young, E.H. – The Misses Mallett
Young, E.H. – Chatterton Square
Young, Josa – One Apple Tasted
Zaid, Gabriel – So Many Books
Zoob, Caroline – Virginia Woolf’s Garden
Zusak, Markus – The Book Thief
Zweig, Stefan – Confusion
Zweig, Stefan – Burning Secret
Zweig, Stefan – A Chess Story
Various – The Assassin’s Cloak
Various – Bayard Books
Various – Man Proposes
Various – The Paris Review Interviews
Various – The Sixpenny Debt and other Oxford stories

Reviews by Our Vicar and Our Vicar’s Wife