Reviews 

Haven’t read this since I was at school, but P now has the collected works. Austen does write perfect prose, which is a joy to read. I...

I found this very slight. An Irish girl, struggling to find work in her hometown, goes to New York at the instigation of her local...

A serious and classic novel in response to the above thoughts; I am not sure if I have read this before, although we bought it in 1978!...

I didn’t think much of this; following the plot(s) with all the time shifts was pretty hard work. The third part of a trilogy (might have...

Quite enjoyed this. A romance between a 40 year old white woman, divorced with two kids, and a 20+ old black man, who works in the local...

Never read any Roddy Doyle before, but listened to bits of this on Radio 4 and enjoyed it. Good, but quite hard work. Shades of both...

Not being a big Dickens fan, I thought I would try one yet again and took this on holiday. Deliberately chose a book I knew nothing...

A real curate’s egg, if that is the right expression. Half (or less page wise) is set in France in 1916 and reminded me a lot of...

This is a lovely book. Saw the film on the TV last week and discovered that our next door neighbour had given the book (twice) to Paddy...

We bought this in Lymington in September 1978 and if I have read it before, it won’t have been since shortly after then. Gaskell is a...

Never read this before and I thought it was really good. She writes clean, strong, prose and there were lots of bits of plot that are...

I didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous ones. The theme/motif here was trees, apples early in the book and sequoias, towards the end,...

This is a wonderful book by a wonderful writer. A real discovery for me. The theme is very obvious from the Vermeer reproduction on the...

Remarkably, there was another book of hers in the house, which obviously belonged to my Dad. This was totally different, although the...

One of Paddy’s and this was brilliant. Set in the early 1930’s and about a 38 year old spinster whose intended had been killed the 1st...

This is by the author of ‘The Miniturist’ which I have seen on television if not read. Not in the George Eliot class (well what would...

Quite good. I had heard bits on the Radio 4 book of the week slot a month or so ago. A young, class-crossed love story set against the...

An odd book, by a writer I am not sure I really like. About a love affair between a 19 year old chap and a 48 year old woman, set...

Bought 1977, so probably haven’t read for 40+ years! Brilliant, hasn’t aged at all and I had minimal memory of either the book or (I am...

The only one we had in the house; I had read before but had no memory of it, perhaps a bad omen. I felt quite cheated by this; an...