A Tomb With a View by Peter Ross is a fascinating book about graveyards in Britain and Ireland and the stories of some well-known and forgotten residents as well as the work of those who care for them. The famous Victorian cemeteries in London such as Highgate and Kensal Rise face issues with limited space and expensive upkeep. Ross writes sensitively about a variety of subjects such as Muslim funerals in east London, the infant burial grounds known as cillini in Ireland, graveyards in Northern Ireland in the context of the Troubles and the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who recover the remains of soldiers found in northern France and trace the living relatives. Ross is a true taphophile – a lover of cemeteries – and a compassionate guide rather than an overly nostalgic one. ‘A Tomb With a View’ is an excellent book about reckoning with death in a life-affirming rather than morbid way.
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Books I Read in March 2024
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Books I Read in February 2024
A Life of One’s Own by Joanna Biggs is a blend of literary criticism and mini biographies of eight female authors and how they carved out creative freedoms for themselves, alongside Biggs’s personal reflections on her experience of going through a divorce in her 30s and losing her mother to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease a few years ago. In this book, she examines the lives and works of Mary Wollstonecraft, George Eliot, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison and Elena Ferrante. Biggs demonstrated her skill at pen portraits in her 2015 book All Day Long about people at work and she is astute and concise in her analysis of how their hard-won independence is reflected in their work.
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Books I Read in January 2024
Wellness by Nathan Hill is set in the 1990s when Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students amid a vibrant art scene in Chicago. The novel follows the ups and downs of their relationship over the next 20 years through to middle age when they are married with a young son. Jack is a photographer while Elizabeth works at a wellness lab specialising in using placebos to treat disorders. The character development is exceptionally detailed, although some of the deep dives about psychology and algorithms could have been a little more concise. Still, unlike most doorstopper novels which deal with complex social issues – ‘Wellness’ is a hefty 600+ pages – it doesn’t take itself too seriously thanks to Hill’s sharp eye for humour and cynicism. I enjoyed Hill’s debut The Nix a lot and his second novel doesn’t disappoint. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for sending me a review copy via NetGalley. Continue reading
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My Books of the Year 2023
One of the stand-out novels I read in 2023 was Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld which is a fun and refreshingly original take on the genre. I also really enjoyed The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith which is the seventh outing for Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott’s detective agency as they infiltrate a sinister cult in Norfolk. Continue reading
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Books I Read in December 2023
I often seek out the books which receive rare positive reviews in Private Eye magazine and Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis is a truly eye-opening look at where our waste actually ends up. Franklin-Wallis probes a lot of uncomfortable truths about recycling and greenwashing on his travels around the world starting at a recycling centre in Essex and followed by a mega-landfill site in India, a textile market in Ghana, a processing plant in California where defunct tech is recycled, and sewers in London. The legacy of wealthy countries exporting their waste to poorer countries as well as overproduction and corporate greed have created staggering problems with waste disposal. The most disheartening thing is how so many supposed solutions end up failing to make any real difference or cause more issues further down the line. With textiles, for example, cotton tote bags need to be used 7,000 times to match the environmental cost of a single-use plastic bag, clothes made from recycled fibres are themselves much more difficult to recycle and 25% of clothing is never sold because it is thrown away by companies rather than reused elsewhere. If the first two-thirds of the book haven’t made you feel depressed enough, wait until you read about the environmental impact of the 97% of global waste generated by industry including mining and nuclear waste which dwarfs the 3% generated by households. Franklin-Wallis does offer some messages of hope about how to reduce consumption, although I still finished the book feeling very overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. Essential reading, and a last-minute entry for one of my books of the year. Continue reading
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Books I Read in October 2023
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith is the seventh outing for Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott’s private detective agency. When they are approached by the family of a young man feared to have been brainwashed by a religious cult, Robin goes undercover at Chapman’s farm in Norfolk to find out what is really going on at the Universal Humanitarian Church led by the charismatic Papa J. Meanwhile, Cormoran tracks down various ex-members as evidence mounts of the Church’s involvement in several serious crimes.
‘The Running Grave’ is another 900+ page doorstopper like its two predecessors in the series, but thankfully has none of The Ink Black Heart’s formatting issues and all of the gripping atmosphere of Troubled Blood. There are no signs that the romantic tension between Cormoran and Robin will be properly resolved any time soon, and frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if this was strung out for another seven novels at this rate. Since I’ve been writing this blog, this is the only long-running series I have really got into and stuck with over a number of years. The familiarity of the characters is now very comforting, even if Robin’s time at Chapman’s Farm involves some of the most sinister and disturbing events in the series yet. J. K. Rowling has confirmed that she has been working on the eighth book and I would very happily read several more instalments following Strike and Ellacott’s cases.
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Books I Read in November 2023
Nine Pints by Rose George is a non-fiction about “the mysterious, miraculous world of blood”. The title refers to the approximate amount of blood we have in our bodies, and George explores various blood-related topics across nine chapters covering disease, cultural attitudes and medical breakthroughs. George‘s global tour includes HIV education in South Africa, the taboo of menstruation in Nepal, the infected blood scandal in the UK and a controversial plasma clinic in Canada. There are also more positive stories about pioneers such as Oxford scientist Dame Janet Vaughan who set up the world’s first mass blood donation system during the Second World War and Arunchalam Muruganantham who helped develop low-cost sanitary products in India. George is an engaging popular science author whose thorough essays combine historical research and field reporting and are crammed with facts. It’s probably not the ideal book for anyone who is particularly squeamish, but at least there aren’t any illustrations. Continue reading
Books I Read in September 2023
The Fraud by Zadie Smith weaves together three storylines based on true events in the 19th century. A Cockney butcher arrives in London from Australia claiming to be Sir Roger Tichborne, the heir to a baronetcy and previously thought to have been lost at sea. His sensational fraud trial in London captures everyone’s attention, including Eliza Touchet, the cousin-by-marriage of prolific novelist William Ainsworth who outsold Charles Dickens in his day, and Andrew Bogle, a former Jamaican slave who believes the claimant really is Tichborne despite a considerable amount of evidence that he definitely isn’t. ‘The Fraud’ is Smith’s long-awaited first piece of long-form historical fiction, but ultimately I prefer her contemporary novels. It is an original take on a forgotten case with some humorous dialogue and parallels with more recent events in the US. However, I think it was held back by its overly complex structure scattered across very short chapters, with the three strands never quite hanging together in a coherent or satisfying way (much like my issue with To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara). Many thanks to Penguin UK, Hamish Hamilton for sending me a review copy via NetGalley. Continue reading
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Books I Read in August 2023
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell is a fictionalised account of the marriage of 15-year-old Lucrezia di Cosima de’Medici to Alfonso, Duke of Ferrera in sixteenth century Florence, merging two powerful family dynasties. Lucrezia would be dead barely a year later, allegedly of “putrid fever” but rumours persist that she was murdered, as per the Duke’s confession in Robert Browning’s poem ‘My Last Duchess’. O’Farrell’s novel imagines events from Lucrezia’s point of view as a young adolescent in an arranged marriage to an older man with the sole purpose of producing a male heir. Renaissance Italy isn’t an period of history I knew a great deal about, but it is very much brought to life by O’Farrell’s vivid descriptions and the suspense caused by Lucrezia’s growing realisation that her husband is plotting to kill her when she fails to fall pregnant. Historical fiction is a relatively new direction for O’Farrell following Hamnet in 2020 and her latest novel does not disappoint. Continue reading
Books I Read in June 2023
I went to the Hay Festival for a couple of days at the end of May and picked up Regenesis by George Monbiot from the signed copies table in the Festival Bookshop (climate and food seemed to be big topics at the Festival this year). The first half of Monbiot’s book about the state of the food and farming industry is terrifying, with disturbing statistics about the impact of land use for farming livestock and evidence that some types of organic farming can actually be worse for the environment. Luckily, the second half is more positive with examples of how food production can be genuinely sustainable, although it feels like it would take a miracle for these methods to be widely adopted across society to make a difference. Monbiot has clearly been deeply immersed in his research on soil ecology, but also addresses social issues around food bank use, and he puts forward a persuasive case for reducing farming of animals for food.
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Books I Read in May 2023
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my most anticipated books of 2023. Sally is a comedy writer for the late-night sketch show The Night Owls – a fictionalised version of Saturday Night Live – where she meets Noah Brewster, a pop star since the early 2000s who is appearing as a guest host. Expecting to work with a vapid and self-absorbed celebrity, Sally is pleasantly surprised when they hit it off while writing sketches. Her awkward lack of self-confidence prevents romantic developments, until they reconnect through email correspondence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The atmosphere of the male-dominated writers’ room is convincingly depicted and Sally is a refreshingly well-written female lead character who isn’t defined by her feelings about having children. Sittenfeld uses some of the traditional tropes of the romantic comedy genre, particularly around conflict, while quietly reversing others. Rather than being in competition with a rival, the only real obstacle is Sally’s low self-esteem. This is easily one of the most enjoyable books I have read this year. Continue reading
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Books I Read in April 2023
Red Sauce Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake is a travel memoir which documents the Guardian food writer’s “British breakfast odyssey” cycling around the UK in search of all the components of breakfast food from sausages in Glamorgan to potato bread in Northern Ireland to jam in Tiptree. Hampered by persistent hamstring injuries and COVID-19 restrictions which were still in place in the summer of 2021 when Cloake embarked on the trip, it’s a shame that some of her plans had to be abandoned, but a publisher’s deadline is clearly something that can’t be pushed back. As well as the usual everyday suspects such as eggs, bacon and Weetabix, I learned a lot about more esoteric regional delicacies such as laverbread, stotties, soda farls and pikelets. At the end of each chapter, Cloake poses the “red sauce or brown sauce” question to everyone she meets along the way on her journey… for me, it will always be ketchup. I will certainly seek out Cloake’s book ‘One More Croissant for the Road’ about her culinary travels in France. Continue reading
Books I Read in March 2023
Lessons by Ian McEwan spans the life of Roland Baines, born shortly after the Second World War. Taking in several major world crises from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Chernobyl disaster to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as intimate domestic events, ‘Lessons’ is a sprawling epic and easily McEwan’s longest novel. Some elements of Roland’s early life are strongly autobiographical, including his childhood spent partly in Libya and his discovery late in life that he has a half-brother, as McEwan did in 2002. However, it is the repercussions from the piano lessons Roland received at boarding school that have the most significant impact on his life. I read but didn’t review McEwan’s previous novel ‘Machines Like Me’ in 2019 which I didn’t think was among his best work, but I would say that ‘Lessons’ is very much a return to form and genuinely engrossing. Many thanks to Vintage Books for sending me a review copy via NetGalley. Continue reading
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Books I Read in February 2023
Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2021 – two of my favourite literary prizes. Flyn explores 13 places where humans used to live but have now left for good. While most of the locations were hastily evacuated due to environmental disasters or war, the case of urban decline in Detroit is more about being gradually left behind. Flyn is very good at explaining concepts in laypersons terms and engages with the climate change issues sensitively. While there are undoubtedly consequences for humans and non-humans alike, she also shows how ecologically resilient these sites are with an ability to recover or adapt, simply by being left alone from human occupation. Overall, this is an excellent book which is very well-written and provides plenty to think about. Continue reading
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Books I Read in January 2023
Love Marriage by Monica Ali tells the story of 26-year-old junior doctor Yasmin Ghorani who is engaged to fellow medic Joe Sangster. The novel opens with Yasmin’s Bengali immigrant parents meeting Joe’s famous feminist mother for the first time at her house in Primrose Hill. The evening forces Yasmin to re-evaluate her assumptions and opinions about the people she is closest to, but the supposedly inevitable culture clash doesn’t develop in the most predictable way. There are several subplots with a large cast of supporting characters, and although some of this could have been cut down, ‘Love Marriage’ is an entertaining modern family saga. Many thanks to Little Brown for sending me a review copy via NetGalley. Continue reading
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My Books of the Year 2022
There were three novels which really stood out for me in 2022. Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet was longlisted for the Booker Prize last year and skilfully presents the fictional biography of psychoanalyst Arthur Collins Braithwaite as authentic source material.
Careless by Kirsty Capes is an excellent debut novel which was longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. It is about a 15-year-old girl in care who discovers that she is pregnant and Capes handles the narrative very convincingly.
I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait is a memorable novel about the impact of mental health and dysfunctional family dynamics, which sounds depressing but is written with very dry humour.
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Books I Read in December
For Richer For Poorer by Victoria Coren is the Only Connect presenter’s 2009 memoir about how she became a professional poker player and the first female winner of the European Poker Tour in 2006 in London. Overall, ‘For Richer, For Poorer’ will probably be appreciated the most by those who already know a fair amount about poker. However, if, like me, you only have some basic knowledge of the game, ‘For Richer, For Poorer’ is still very enjoyable to read, mostly because Coren is very skilled at writing about poker in a way that will make at least some sense to those who haven’t played before. From her first games as a teenager attempting to impress her brother’s friends to her appearances on the Channel 4 TV series Late Night Poker to the highest stakes at the EPT, Coren paints excellent pen portraits of her fellow players in the poker underworld and the book is as much about the mysterious characters around the table as the game itself and how much it has changed since the popularity of online poker exploded. A very witty memoir. Continue reading
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Books I Read in November
Traitor King by Andrew Lownie is an account of the events which followed Edward VIII’s abdication of the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Lownie puts forward a convincing case that the newly created Duke and Duchess of Windsor were not just fascist sympathisers but also actively colluded with the Nazi regime. Living in various luxury apartments in Paris and the Bahamas, the couple rarely returned to England in order to avoid paying income tax and were obsessed with their social status and keeping up the appearance of a successful happy marriage when the reality was very different. ‘Traitor King’ is a well-researched book drawing on extensive archives to produce a damning portrait of a truly appalling couple who had no redeeming features whatsoever. Continue reading
Books I Read in October
Longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, Trust by Hernan Diaz was was one of the nominated titles which intrigued me the most. It consists of four manuscripts related to New York financier Andrew Bevel and his wife Mildred. The first is a novella called ‘Bonds’ written by Mildred’s friend and is followed by Andrew’s autobiography, a memoir written by his ghostwriter before concluding with Mildred’s personal journal. The structure is unique and very clever, but the pay off for the reader doesn’t really happen until well into the second half when the other perspectives highlight that Andrew and Mildred are thinly disguised as characters in the novella while Andrew’s boasts sit uncomfortably alongside Mildred’s version of events. This is an elegantly written and constructed piece of metafiction which has been accurately described as a “literary puzzle”, but I wonder how many readers will see it through to the end. Continue reading
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Books I Read in September
And Finally: Matters of Life and Death by Henry Marsh is the neurosurgeon’s account of being diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer shortly after his retirement. If you have read Marsh’s first two books about his career, Do No Harm and Admissions, then you will know that he doesn’t sugar coat things, and after a long career in medicine and the realisation that he is now a patient himself, he is similarly candid in his personal reflections about his own ageing and mortality. The first part of the book which deals with his denial about the diagnosis is darkly funny. He also talks about his experiences supporting colleagues in Nepal and Ukraine and his worries about the impact on his family. ‘And Finally’ is a relatively short and unstructured book which reflects Marsh’s uncertainty about the future, but still beautifully written. Many thanks to Vintage Books for sending me a review copy on NetGalley. Continue reading
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