Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner

One of the reasons I never make ‘end of year’ lists of best books until the last possible moment (more or less – I don’t spend New Year’s Eve parties typing away) is because sometimes I read something brilliant in the last few days of the year. And picking up Swans on an Autumn River (1966) by Sylvia Townsend Warner, I’m glad I’ve waited. (It was published as A Stranger with a Bag in the UK, but I’ve gone with the title of the edition I have.)

This is my second collection of short stories by Warner, and it’s just as brilliant as the first one I read (The Museum of Cheats). The more I read by her, the more I think – with the possible exception of the brilliant Lolly Willowes – that short stories were truly her metier, rather than novels. She somehow puts humanity powerfully into these curious, wise, and very adeptly controlled short pieces.

Warner is exceptionally good at first lines. They aren’t the pithy, quotable sort that are laboriously placed as some sort of diving board, after which the tone of the story becomes much more natural – we all know that variety, and they are indeed fun to quote, but don’t always sit well with the rest of the narrative. Warner captures your attention, but there is no jolt as we move from the first sentence to the second. Here are a few of them:

We had divorced in amity; when we met again after the statutory six months we found each other such good company that we agreed to go on meeting from time to time. (‘A Jump Ahead’)

From that morning when he woke to the sound of the first autumnal gale lashing like a caged tiger against the house fronts and knew with physical infallibility that after all he was going to recover, Guy Stoat burned with impatience to get out of the County Hospital and go home. (‘The View of Rome’)

As he quitted the Aer Lingus plane from Liverpool and set foot for the first time in his life on Irish soil, he was already a disappointed man. (‘Swans on an Autumn River’)

My favourite story of the collection is the first one, ‘A Stranger with a Bag’. In it, a travelling salesman notices a rickety old house out of his train window for the first time, and – on an uncharacteristic impulse – decides to go and see it. Warner weaves together his imaginative journey with the one he actually takes, putting both into simple sentences, so the reader is (for a while) unsure whether things like ‘he walked towards the house’ are actually happening or not. The scene he finds is unexpected, to him and to the reader, and the title shows Warner’s tilts of perspective – as he realises that, to the household, he is just a stranger with a bag.

I like it so much because it mixes elements of fairy tale with the unshakably mundane. Warner is very good at scene-setting and buildings – she shows us the house from a distance and then close-up, knowing that a house is very different from these perspectives, and somehow conveying it in her writing.

Other topics she looks at are the visit of a young relative to his grandmother and great-aunt, and the clash of his recollections of them with the real experience; a new wife and an old wife collaborating unexpectedly; a disturbing picnic. Many more. In perhaps her most famous short story, ‘A Love Match’, a brother and sister quietly become a couple.

A few of the stories feel a little too dramatic at their climax – the title story, ‘Swans on an Autumn River’, perhaps falls into that category – but, at her finest, she is brilliant at undercutting a reader’s expectations and, in doing so, showing a truer, brighter light on human nature. And that doesn’t mean that she always sees the worst – she sees past either cynicism or pollyannaism into the heart of what makes people who they are.

Tea or Books? #114: Linear vs Non-linear Narratives and Winter in the Air vs A World of Love

Sylvia Townsend Warner, Elizabeth Bowen, linear narratives – welcome to episode 114!

In the first half of this episode, we use a suggestion from listener Sarah – do we prefer linear or non-linear narratives? In the second half we look at two books from Rachel’s tbr pile that don’t, honestly, have much in common – though we do manage cobble together some thoughts, as per: A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen and the short story collection Winter in the Air by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

As usual, we’d love to hear from you at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with any questions, comments or suggestions – you can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate and review, it would mean a lot, and you can support us at Patreon too.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
The Captain Comes Home by Helen Ashton
Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
Return to Cheltenham by Helen Ashton
Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfeild
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Free Air by Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Spiderweb by Penelope Lively
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Which Way? by Theodora Benson
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Dangerous Corner by J.B. Priestley
Constellations by Nick Payne
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Wise Children by Angela Carter
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis
Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner
To The North by Elizabeth Bowen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton

Tea or Books? #101: Rachel explores Simon’s shelves

Rachel takes a look at Simon’s bookshelves – will she take any books away with her??

Way back in episode 70, I was in Rachel’s flat in London and took a look around her bookcases. We planned a return visit… and then the pandemic happened. But now travel and visiting is easier, we have finally got around to organising Rachel coming out to rural West Oxfordshire to look at my bookcases.

Trailing around with a mic was a bit tricky, so the sound isn’t perfect – but hopefully plenty to enjoy nonetheless.

You can support the podcast on Patreon – where, from this episode, you’ll get episodes a few days early! Find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts – and you can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com.

The (enormous number of!) books and authors we mention in this episode are:

A Natural History of Ghosts by Roger Clark
Contested Will 
by James Shapiro
A Woman of Passion: A Life of E. Nesbit by Julia Briggs
The Lark by E. Nesbit
The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons
Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
Return to Cheltenham by Helen Ashton
The Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton
Jane Austen
Master Man by Ruby Ayres
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Elizabeth Bowen
Illyrian Spring by Ann Spring
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Two Doctors by Elizabeth Cambridge
Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge
Willa Cather
Children of the Archbishop by Norman Collins
London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
The Double Heart by Lettice Cooper
Desirable Residence by Lettice Cooper
The Rising Tide by Margaret Deland
Will Shakespeare by Clemence Dane
Catchword and Claptrap by Rose Macaulay
Virginia Woolf
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
The Amorous Bicycle by Mary Essex
A Child in the Theatre by Rachel Ferguson
Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson
The Brontes Went To Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons
My American by Stella Gibbons
Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons
Told In Winter by Jon Godden
Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Brief Candles by Aldous Huxley
The Honours Board by Pamela Hansford Johnson
An Error of Judgement by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
Coronation by Paul Gallico
Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico
The Hand of Mary Constable by Paul Gallico
Stephen Leacock
The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins
Honey by Elizabeth Jenkins
Robert and Helen by Elizabeth Jenkins
Herbert Jenkins
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
The Making of Bigot by Rose Macaulay
Mystery at Geneva by Rose Macaulay
What Not by Rose Macaulay
Told By An Idiot by Rose Macaulay
Summertime by Denis Mackail
We’re Here by Denis Mackail
Greenery Street by Denis Mackail
What Next? by Denis Mackail
Ian and Felicity by Denis Mackail
The House by William McElwee
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Safety Pins by Christopher Morley
Thunder on the Left by Christopher Morley
Where The Blue Begins by Christopher Morley
An Unexpected Guest by Bernadette Murphy
Beverley Nichols
The Shoreless Sea by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Storm Bird by Mollie Panter-Downes
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck
A Clear Dawn by Winifred Peck
Housebound by Winifred Peck
Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed
The White Shield by Myrtle Reed
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
D.E. Stevenson
Elizabeth Taylor
Gin and Ginger by Lady Kitty Vincent
Lipstick by Lady Kitty Vincent
The Benefactress by Elizabeth von Arnim
Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Happy Ending by Leo Walmsley
The Golden Waterwheel by Leo Walmsley
Love in the Sun by Leo Walmsley
The True Heart by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Fell Top by Winifred Watson
Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White
The Wheel Turns by Ethel Lina White
The Dragon in Shallow Waters by Vita Sackville-West
The Hills Sleep On by Joanna Cannan
Three Lives by Lettice Cooper
The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
Elizabeth Berridge
Margaret Drabble
The East Window by Margaret Morrison
There is a Tide by Agnes Logan
The Dogs Do Bark by Barbara Willard
The Gothic House by Jean Ross
The Visitors by Mary MacMinni es
A Lion, A Mouse and a Motor-Car by Dorothea Townshend
Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Faster! Faster! by E.M. Delafield
The War Workers by E.M. Delafield
Mrs Harter by E.M. Delafield
The Heel of Achilles by E.M. Delafield
Tension by E.M. Delafield
The Pelicans by E.M. Delafield
Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
Matty and the Dearingroydes by Richmal Crompton
This Little Art by Kate Briggs
Edith Olivier
A Fairy Leapt Upon My Knee by Bea Howe
David Garnett
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Pride of Place by Patience McElwee
Miss Elizabeth Bennet by A.A. Milne
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Infused: Adventures in Tea by Henrietta Lovell
Beware of Children by Verily Anderson
Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson
The Three Brontes by May Sinclair
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
Katherine Mansfield
Mitford sisters
As It Was and World Without End by Helen Thomas
Edward Thomas
Love, Interrupted by Simon Thomas
Leaves in the Wind by Alpha of the Plough
Wintering by Katherine May
The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May
Oliver Sacks
Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple
The Other Day
by Dorothy Whipple

A Spirit Rises by Sylvia Townsend Warner #SylviaTownsendWarnerReadingWeek

Helen at A Gallimaufry is hosting another Sylvia Townsend Warner Reading Week, and I think I’ve managed to join in every year – my bookshelves are nothing if not replete with unread STWs. I have rather failed with many of her novels, and gave up on The Flint Anchor a few weeks ago – but I tend to have much greater success with her short stories. I bought most of the available collections in a spree in 2011, and am gradually reading through them – and 1962’s A Spirit Rises is brilliant.

In her novels, Sylvia Townsend Warner travels widely through time and space. In her short stories, she tends to stick to contemporary England – and this is doubtless one of the reasons I love them so much. She doesn’t need to take us to another world; she can turn her observant eye to the world directly in front of her. And nobody is as good as Warner at the slightly unexpected twists of wording that show deep below the surface of people and their relationships with one another.

It’s always hard to write about a short story collection, so I’ll just pick out some of my favourite stories. Right up there was ‘A Dressmaker’, about an older woman who decides to stop being a dependable relative (shades of Laura Willowes!) and set up as an independent dressmaker. She is mostly doing dull, everyday outfits, but finds most fulfilment on the rare occasions when she has been asked to make evening gowns. And then quiet Mrs Benson comes – seeming quite drab, but bringing extravagant fabrics and asking them to be made into fanciful, beautiful pieces. Here is a section of it – best read slowly, enjoying every word choice Warner makes:

Five months later, she reappeared, and once more it was an evening gown she wanted. Winter had done its worst to Mrs Benson, but had not tamed her ambition. She brought billows of glistening white gauze, splashed with vermilion and rose and lemon, together with a wide ribbon of mignonette green for a sash – ‘like an azalea bed’, she remarked. Mary was about to ask if Mrs Benson was fond of gardening – many ladies were, and looked the worse for it – when Mrs Benson went on, ‘And after this, there is something else I’ve been thinking about, something quite different.’

‘A spring tailor-made, Madam?’ Mrs Benson’s daytime appearance made this a natural assumption.

‘For sad evenings.’

The word ‘sad’ had secondary meanings. It can be used for cakes that have failed to rise, for overcast weather. Mary supposed that the next dress she would make for Mrs Benson would for those dusky, clammy evenings when one almost lights a fire but instead puts on a shawl, and she was glad to think that for once Mrs Benson was facing realities. Mrs Benson was doing no such thing. The silk she brought, patterned in arabesques of brown and mulberry and a curious dead slate-blue, was fine as a moth’s underwing. Held against the light, it was almost transparent, like a film of dirty water.

‘You’ll have a slip underneath, of course, Madam. What shade were you thinking of?

But for once, Mrs Benson had not got it all planned and settled. She stared at the stuff as people stare at slowly running water, and said nothing.

Nobody but Warner could have written this. There are so many things I love in it, but ‘those dusky, clammy evenings where one almost lights a fire but instead puts on a shawl’ stands out. Just wonderful.

As another example, here’s the opening paragraph of ‘Randolph’, about a man returning to his sisters after some time away:

The date of the glossy new tear-off calendar was January 1 but from the window behind the writing-table one saw the vaguely smiling sky of a London spring. It was a room on the first floor, square, and rather too high for its floor-space. The folding-doors in the back wall were open, and gave a view of the room behind – once the back drawing-room of a Victorian mansion but now furnished as a bedroom. Both rooms were inhumanly tidy and smelled of moth-powder. Two women came in and began unwrapping the parcels they carried. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m reeled in immediately. She sets up the small world of the short story so quickly. I said earlier that Warner was describing the world in front of her – but often it is a hazy, timeless world. There are few 1960s references – and I suppose many of the stories would have appeared in the New Yorker in the previous decade. Perhaps it was writing for an audience across the ocean that meant Warner didn’t put English culture too front and centre.

When I read a later collection of stories, The Innocent and the Guilty, for Sylvia Townsend Warner Reading Week a couple of years ago, I found it all a bit vague and abstract. Some of the stories in A Spirit Rises go a different way – it’s the only time I’ve seen Warner use the precision of the unexpected denouement. I’m not sure those perfectly suit her writing style. Better are those like ‘A Dressmaker’ or ‘The Snow Guest’, about an escaped prisoner in a snowy countryside, which end on a stray observation. Something with far-reaching implications, but which is only a moment in a series of moments – not a turning point or a conclusion.

My favourite collection of Warner’s remains Swans on an Autumn River, though this was at least partly because I read them in a castle in Dorset. A Spirit Rises isn’t quite as meteorically wonderful as that book, but it’s not all that far off – it certainly includes the finest writing I’ve read this year, and I know will reward careful, slow, luxurious re-reading. If you’ve only encountered Warner the novelist, please don’t hesitate in exploring her extraordinary talent as a writer of short stories.

Stuck in a Book’s Weekend Miscellany

I’m writing this a few days before the weekend, and I’m already feeling a little bit ropey… fingers crossed I don’t spend the actual weekend in bed, since I’m supposed to be visiting a friend of mine. Eek. But anyway, here’s a link, a blog post, and a book nonetheless…

1.) The link – is the most fascinating true story I’ve read in ages.

2.) The blog post – is Harriet’s review of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s brilliant collection of short stories, Swans on an Autumn River. I also loved this, but she writes about it way better.

3.) The book – I’ve still never read any Rose Tremain, though am intending to read The Gustav Sonata at some point (and have it waiting) – but I see her childhood memoir is coming out in April, and I feel sure some of you would want to know…

My Best Books of 2017

I always love sitting down at the end of the year and compiling my favourite reads of the past 12 months. Often I haven’t really noticed whether it’s been a good or bad year (reading-wise) until I do this – and I’d say 2017 has been steadily very good. Only one of the books I read is likely to find its way onto my all-time faves, but there were dozens that I’d have been very happy to see on an end of year list. And it’s been a very good year for mid-century books!

 

My usual rules for myself apply – only one book by each author can feature, and no re-reads. Each title links back to my review. Here they are, from #10 to #1…

 

Rachel and I read this for ‘Tea or Books?‘ back in February, comparing it another novel about the Thompson/Bywaters murder case (E.M. Delafield’s Messalina of the Suburbs). It’s probably the podcast ep I’m proudest of, as I think this comparison is fascinating – and FTJ’s exquisite novel won that podcast decision and tenth place on my list.

 

When I read Howards End is on the Landing, there was never any doubt that it would be my favourite book that year. I’ve eagerly awaited the sort-of-sequel ever since, and I did absolutely love it. The only reasons it isn’t higher are that I wanted more about books, and perhaps slightly fewer bizarre pronouncements from Hill. Still, nobody else could have written quite this book.

 

I’ve read any number of Taylor novels, and read this one for a conference on Undervalued British Women Writers 1930-1960. It’s more dramatic and dark than many of Taylor’s novels, but absorbingly brilliantly brilliant.

 

Look, I’m never going to get over how much I love the title of this book – which looks at the history of the ‘Shakespeare authorship question’ over the years. Shapiro saves his unanswerable reasons for being pro-Shakespeare until the final chapter; before this he is wise, amusing, and thorough.

 

This quirky, brilliant novel is a masterpiece of unusual structuring, and entirely beguiling. It was also given to me by a friend who died this year, which makes it (and her recommendation) all the more special.

 

I’ve yet to write a review of this one, but I’ve linked to the podcast episode where we compared it to Eden’s other novel, The Semi-Attached Couple. This is a very funny, very arch novel in the mould of Austen, elevating itself past imitation into something rather wonderful.

 

Also published as A Stranger With a Bag, I only reviewed this collection of short stories a week or so ago – I’m glad I waited to make my Best Books list, because these observant, calm, insightful stories are a thought-provoking delight.

 

I reviewed this over at Shiny New Books, and it’s a hilarious account of a year in the life of a Scottish bookseller. Bythell is quite cynical and snarky, but if your sense of humour overlaps with his then you’ll laugh and laugh – as well as getting a glimpse into the Promised Land.

 

This was a slow burn, and had to be read gradually, but it was one of the most rewarding reads I’ve had in a while. Timothy Casson is a writer who moves to a small village in wartime and wants boating rights on the river – of such small things are masterpieces made. Rachel and I will be discussing this one in the new year…

 

It truly has been the Year of Beverley. I’ve read quite a lot of books by him this year, but I had to pick the one which kicked off my Beverley love affair – I read Merry Hall for the 1951 Club, and never looked back. This (presumably heightened) account of buying a house and doing up the garden is hilarious, charming, and (praise be!) the beginning of a trilogy. Don’t wait as long as I did to read Beverley – if you haven’t yet, make 2018 the year you read him!

Tea or Books? #49: Death of the Author?, and The Woman in White vs Possession

Wilkie Collins, A.S. Byatt, and the death of the author (sort of) – episode 49 is quite the mixed bag.


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I found it quite hard to describe the first half of this episode – though hopefully it will become clear! – and probably the best thing to do is to tell you how Karen described it when she sent us the suggestion (thanks Karen!). Here goes: ‘is it legitimate to read a biography to shed light on an author’s work, possibly colouring/enhancing your interpretation, or should the novels be allowed to stand alone as works of art and appreciated for themselves, independent of their creator?’

In the second half, we compare The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and Possession by A.S. Byatt – Victorian vs neo-Victorian – and I Have Thoughts.

In the next episode, we’ll be doing a Q&A – any questions welcomed; pop them in the comments – and early next year we’ve each chosen a book we really think the other one will love. And we reveal them to each other at the end of this episode…

The books and authors we discussed in this episode are:

Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner (as published as Stranger With A Bag)
Katherine Mansfield
‘The Phoenix’ by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Element of Lavishness by Sylvia Townsend Warner and William Maxwell
Victoria: a Life by A.N. Wilson
Charles Darwin, Victorian Mythmaker by A.N. Wilson
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Virginia Woolf
Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Agatha Christie
Forever England by Alison Light
Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster
Letters From Menabilly by Daphne du Maurier and Oriel Malet
William Shakespeare
Beryl Bainbridge
Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
John Clare
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
Elena Ferrante
Dan Brown
A.A. Milne
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andulusia by Penelope Chetwode
John Betjeman
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
No Name by Wilkie Collins
The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
The Garrick Year by Margaret Drabble
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Boat by L.P. Hartley
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

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

Better late than never: a 2017 round-up

I’ve never done my annual round-up of reads QUITE this late in the year, and I don’t know how it’s April already. But in the spirit of better late than never, I thought I’d tell you a bit about what I read last year. With some STATS. And with some comparisons with my stats for 2016.

Number of books read
I read 107 books last year – which is seven more than I completed in 2016, and one more than I read in 2015. The only reason I can give for the slight increase is living on my own giving me a bit more time for reading – and perhaps the fact that I had more holidays than usual, with the extra leave time my new job gave me!

Male/female authors
I read 47 books by men and 60 books by women, which is about the usual ratio for me – though I read 44 fiction books (novels, stories, plays etc) by women and only 21 fiction books by men – with the ratio weighted towards men in the non-fiction category. Huh. It’s also the first year for a while where I didn’t read any books written by a man and a woman.

Fiction/non-fiction
65 of the books I read were fiction, and 42 were non-fiction. It did feel like I read quite a lot of non-fiction last year, but I’m still surprised it was quite that high. Still more fiction, of course, and I doubt that will ever swap around, but… watch this space?

Books in translation
An all-time high of eight books last year – so how did I do in 2017? Well, I read six – My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (from Italian), Closely Observed Trains by Bohumil Hrabal (from Czech), Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig (from German), The Man Who Walked Through Walls by Marcel Ayme (from French), and Letters From Klara by Tove Jansson (from Swedish). So, not a huge number – but I do like that they were all from different languages.

Most-read author
There was never going to be any doubt about this. 2017 was the Year of Beverley, and I read six books by him. At least that number still waiting for me on the shelf, thankfully!

Re-reads
I re-read six books in 2017 (one more than 2016), and nearly all of them were either for the podcast or for book group. And, again, I’m pretty happy at keeping the re-read number down – so I can get through the tbr piles.

New-to-me authors
In the past two years, I’ve read 47 new-to-me authors. Have I kept to that number?? Er, no. But pretty close – 53 of the books I read were by authors I hadn’t read before, so it’s still very much on the half/half cusp. Again, I’m pretty happy with that ratio.

Most disappointing book
Probably the Elena Ferrante, because so many people had told me how good it was. And it found it rather so-so and a bit boring. But I’m often a bit bored by books about childhood, so perhaps I should persevere with the next one at some point… or perhaps I shouldn’t. We’ll see.

Oh, wait, it’s got to be The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I’ve had it on my shelf for 14 years, and found it enormously too long, and quite tedious. Sorry! Looking at my list, there were quite a few disappointments… but I won’t linger over those.

Most delightful non-Beverley discovery

All this fuss about Beverley Nichols, it’s important to remember that I also read Emily Eden for the first time. Her Semi-Attached House and Semi-Detached Couple are well-crafted delights that bear comparison with Jane Austen.

Most deceptive mention of an author in a title

I loved Nina Sankovitch’s memoir about reading a book every day for a year – Tolstoy and the Purple Chair – but only one of them was Tolstoy, and it was such a bizarre idea to call the book that. It can only have put off readers fearful of Tolstoy-heaviness, and disappointed Tolstoy fans.

Most deceptive mention of a book in a title

Does Jacob’s Room is Full of Books by Susan Hill count? I don’t know if I can get over my frustration that the title doesn’t work on two levels in the way that Howards End is on the Landing did.

Most horrifyingly racist book

The Sleeper Awakes by H.G. Wells took a rather unexpected and vile racist turn towards the end. Ugh.

Favourite comparison

Reading two novelised accounts of the Bywaters/Thompson murder case back to back – F Tennyson Jesse’s A Pin To See the Peepshow and E.M. Delafield’s Messalina of the Suburbs – was extremely rewarding and interesting. It also led to one of my favourite podcast episodes.

Animals in book titles
There are always some, somehow. I never think about this until I get to the end of the year (ahem, or April) and find that a whole bunch have turned up again – so which were there in 2017? Mostly birds, oddly. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, A Footman for the Peacock by Rachel Ferguson, Hackenfeller’s Ape by Brigid Brophy, Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell, The Pelicans by E.M. Delafield, The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, and Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Strange things that happened in books this year

Always my favourite section – and everybody else’s too, as far as I can tell from the comments. Here’s a selection of this year’s oddities – a man travelled through time to medieval England; a man slept for decades and found he was the leader of a revolution; time was rationed based on wealth; a servant was reincarnated as a peacock; the Brontes popped up in Woolworths; a man walked through walls; a hearing trumpet opens up a surreal world; a couple thought they might be father and daughter; a couple were brother and sister; someone got murdered in the theatre; someone survived suicide to be murdered; an ape went loose in London; boating rights somehow led to communism.