It is human nature to be attracted to that which we feel we can relate to, things that resonate within us. And perhaps that is why as a debut novel, The Good Guy, is such a memorable first impression. Inspired by her own experience, Susan Beale offers a compelling insight into the classic tale: the Read More
A sleepy Essex village is roused to a simmering hysteria as rumours that a monstrous 17th century winged sea serpent has returned, causing an oppressive pall of paranoia to descend on those who live by the banks of the Blackwater. The local vicar, educated and thoroughly modern, battles the rising superstitions of the villagers, a Read More
Stories have the power to entrance and captivate, giving them the ability to teach, comfort and even inspire the reader or listener. In The Words in My Hand, Guinevere Glasfurd explores the impact of words and writing in the life of Helena Jans, René Descartes’s maid and also mother to his illegitimate child. Helena was Read More
Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton, 2016); pbk, £12.99 In an interview given at the time of her previous Man Booker nomination in 2012, Deborah Levy is recorded as saying, “I want to walk my female characters into the centre of my work. They don’t have to be likable but they have to be compelling and complicated.” Well, Read More
Having been coaxed into seeing a horror film at a tender age, I’ve never since been able to gain enough distance from the gothic form to relish its thrills dispassionately. That half-glimpsed face in the darkened window or the unfamiliar shadow on the landing still results in one of those sudden irrational lurches of the Read More
Already an award-winning writer for her short fiction, Sara Baume’s debut novel is in contention for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award. Spill Simmer Falter Wither is set in a nameless coastal town over the course of a year, the book being split up into four “seasons”: the titular spill, simmer, falter and wither (or Read More
Tasha Kavanagh has previously published a number of children’s books, and judging by the tone and point of view of her first novel, Things We Have In Common, she is still drawn to that genre. Indeed, the subject matter here places this debut adult work into that crossover space shared by adult and ‘young adult’ Read More