It is surprising that Klara and the Sun is only the second of Kazuo Ishiguro I have ever read. It is surprising because the other novel, Never Let Me Go, had such a profound effect on me when I first read it in my early twenties. There are some novels that never fade from your … More Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

It is perhaps fortuitous that as I finished John Dunn’s ‘The Glitter in the Green’ I should have heard at the open window both the roar of traffic on the M1 and the sound of blackbirds on the trees outside. The encroachment of man on the natural world and the devastating impact we are having … More The Glitter in the Green by Jon Dunn

I am currently working my way through watching the second season of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’.  It does feel like work as it feels somewhat relentless in the violence and trauma meted out towards nearly all the female characters. At one point during a group therapy session around healing and moving forward, Elizabeth Moss’s character June … More Animal by Lisa Taddeo

The book the group discussed on Wednesday 9th of September was Natalie Haynes’ ‘A Thousand Ships’ which had recently been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.  Natalie Haynes is a writer and broadcaster as well as a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 where she presents her own show: Natalie Haynes Stands Up for … More A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

As a female and someone who loves to run and walk in nature, I am incredibly interested in how other women view landscape and place. It feels as though the genre of nature and travel writing is a field dominated by male voices and so I was really excited to read a fresh perspective that … More I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain by Anita Sethi

Apollo: Oscar Wilde’s life – like his wit – was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and victim of ‘celebrity culture’: famous for being famous, he was often ridiculed and disparaged. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was … More Oscar: A Life by Matthew Sturgis

Publisher: Vintage Publication Date: August 2020 Spring is perhaps a really fitting time to read Helen MacDonald’s ‘Vesper Flights’. Nature is beginning to awaken and chase winter away; new life is all around and the warmer days are arriving. Reading this collection of essays really made me aware of the world around me and, in … More Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

Published by: Bloomsbury August 2019 As someone who had little knowledge of what a mudlark was before reading this book it is really useful that Lara Maiklem opens with the following definition from the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles: ‘ A person who scavenges for usable debris in the mud of a … More Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames by Lara Maiklem

Published by: Faber and Faber April 2021 It feels a somewhat incongruent experience to finish reading This One Sky Day and have to leave the fictional archipelago Popisho, brimming in life and warmth to come back to a frost and snow ridden UK. I have never experienced reading a book quite like it and I … More This One Sky Day by Leone Ross

by C Pam Zhang Publisher: Virago April 2020 How Much of These Hills is Gold C Pam Zhang I finished this book two days ago and yet certain images from it continue to haunt me: the buffalo bones, the dust, the tiger paw prints and mostly, the flecks of gold. It is these flecks of … More How Much of These Hills is Gold