Reviews 

Benjamin Black is the non de plume of John Banville, not that I have heard of him either. This is a slightly picaresque quasi-historical...

Haven’t read one of these for years. I used to love James Lee Burke, but that was in a different place and this now seems pretty...

Paul Scott apart, this would I think be my book of the year this year. A library book that Paddy enjoyed, set in post war England. Quite...

Never hear of this guy, but found him on a ‘Best Crime Thriller’ website. Opaque, at least to me; an English lawyer, he has written a...

This is a lovely book, totally different and beautifully constructed. A lonely young Swedish woman arrives in the run down Iowa town of...

A follow on from Lucky Jim. Interesting these post-war working class boys (if the authors really were) who are interested in different...

This has sat on our bookcase since October 1977 unread. It seems to be quite a famous book, but it is pretty poor. I don’t know who...

Another one from the attic, I don’t know why as there is lots of space in cricket books downstairs. This is about Botham’s Ashes in 1981....

Hadn’t read this before; quite hard work but interesting book, particularly given publication pre 1850. Maybe there were lots of similar...

Very readable, but a little similar to other (I think W Boyd) books; the 20th century seen through the developing life of an individual....

This is very good; totally different, potentially difficult but beautifully written and so easy to read. Set in late 17th century...

I didn’t like this much; P read it alternating between tears and hysterical laughter, but it did nothing for me. About a grumpy old and...

An Xmas present from B, maybe with Larkin’s most famous opening line in mind. (?) I started hating it, seeing it as a typically footnoted...

A lot more fun than Conrad, despite the title. Block writes a very good story and Matt Scudder is an interesting character. The ending is...

I am sure I read this about 2 years ago and hated it. This time round it was very good, maybe in contrast to the excess Kate Atkinson in...

Tried, but failed to finish this at the end of the holiday. Bellow now seems to me to be very overrated; some Jewish humour, but pretty...

A much later book than no.304, and much longer and more ponderous. The central conceit is quite clever (an apparent murder, which...

Haven’t read one of these for years. This is an early book (1959) and surprisingly good. The story is beautifully constructed, as the...

The author died recently, and I heard about this on a Radio 4 obituary programme. I believe he was a white Afrikaan who became...

I enjoyed this – don’t normally like books by celebrities but Clare Balding has had to work out how to be a gay upper class horsey girl,...