Reviews 

I felt quite cynical about this. Alan Davies, the comedian and TV personality, was sexually abused, in a fairly minor way, by his father...

Book of the year so far. A lovely book by a lovely and very funny woman (I loved her hosting of ‘The News Quiz’, can’t get into Q1...

Not too sure why P bought this for me. I am a huge fan of Steve Martin’s early films – ‘Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid’ is probably my...

I enjoyed this enormously, but partly because I know Robert (a little) personally and our career paths have run slightly in parallel, and...

Needed something light after Henry James. I have read this before, years ago, and my impression hasn’t changed much - despite being...

I asked for this for my birthday, and try to avoid writing about books I haven’t finished, but sometimes life is just too short. He...

Possibly her first (famous or actual first?) book. Good, but difficult and hard work. The main narrative is a Tristram Shandy like...

Another of P’s library books; I found this a curious mixture of annoying and extremely good. An autobiographical (I assume) story of a...

Merton is a very funny man, but not a great writer; the prose is pretty plodding, and the intersected jokes are mainly visual. I didn’t...

Hard to comment on this. Of course as a cricket fan, interested to read his book. But it is such an apologia for KP, and such a...

I found this very dull until about the last two chapters when it suddenly blazed into life. Perhaps Carey’s early life was dull as the...

A journalist’s reminiscences/anecdotes about the people he has met and had dealings with. Hoggart is (or was, I think he may have died...

Haven’t read a cricketing biography for years, and probably won’t repeat the experience for a while. Get this on Amazon

Aeroplane reading en route for Spain. Haven't read a David Lodge for years. Coming of age novel, apparently quite autobiographical, set...

Heard this reviewed on Radio 4. A bit different. A novel disguised as 'self-help' book very simply about getting rich in rising Asia....

(Requested) Xmas present from my son D. I enjoyed it in the end; found it difficult at first as: I was expecting a linear narrative Some...