Reviews 

Another very good book, although completely different. Set just after the end of the 2nd World War, Hilary Wainwright is an ex-British...

This is very good and a lot better than no.1039. Set in the late 18th century in London, Istanbul, and elsewhere, it involves a...

One via P. Very light, Parisian story about a man who inadvertently steals Francois Mitterand’s hat from a Paris restaurant. He...

I enjoyed this although it started slowly and ponderously. Illyria is a country estate, somewhere near New York, to which leading artists...

Didn’t finish this but managed ½ so ½ a review. The basic concept was interesting, a book almost about the evolution of the book and its...

This is a pretty good WW2 thriller, set in Italy. It reminded me a bit of Sebastian Faulks’ Charlotte Grey. I didn’t like the title, as...

Sub-titled ‘A history of feminism in 11 fights’ this is very good, a mix of intelligent journalism and at times scholarly text. The...

Never heard of the author (he wrote ‘Get Carter’ apparently) and worked on the animation of 'Yellow Submarine'. This is basically London...

Published in 1995, so 25 years old. Made me wonder about the author’s sexuality. There are three main characters, Tim Cranmer the...

Probably his last published book, as he died last week. Le Carré is a writer (like Graham Greene) whose prose an English middle class...

Haven’t read this for many years, and not sure I will read it again. Prolix and verbose, I struggled to get anything out of it. Paul...

Paddy recommended this. I found it slightly hard going although as I got into it I wondered why. Maybe re-read on a beach. 3 main...

Wanted a detective story/thriller for a change but this was poor, although the author is quite acclaimed. A real old fashioned ‘who...

One of Paddy’s library books; I have never heard of the author (although I think I may have read ‘The Cleaner of Chartres’), but this was...

Quite formulaic US crime novel, with a very ambiguous villainess. Reminded me a bit of Elmore Leonard and a bit Hitchcock also. But this...

A book about living off the land for a year. The author decided to live entirely off natural produce (animals he could kill, stuff...

One of P’s – I had never heard of the author (nor had she) who is younger than me, a farmer who also writes books about soldiers’s...

The 3rd of Paddy’s library books, after burn out with Tana French. If 480 was brilliant and 481 execrable, this was middling. The genre...

I think this may be his first novel (see 447); I have read it before but always enjoy it. The plot is as described above, although with...

I was looking for a different Le Carré book, but this one was referred to in 446, so I thought I would give it a go (I must have read it...