HISTORY THE ZOOKEEPERS’ WAR by J.W. Mohnhaupt (S&S £18.99, 272 pp) Here’s a tale from the Cold War that’s little-known but deserves not to be. After World War II, as you know, Berlin was split into two. West Berlin was under the control of the Allies, while East Berlin was under the Soviet yoke, and an … Read more
THRILLERS By Geoffrey Wansell for the Daily Mail Published: 22:01 GMT, 9 January 2020 | Updated: 00:47 GMT, 11 January 2020 THREE HOURS by Rosamund Lupton (Viking £14.99, 320 pp) THREE HOURS by Rosamund Lupton (Viking £14.99, 320 pp) It is early days, but this could be one of the thrillers of the new decade. … Read more
CONTEMPORARY By Sara Lawrence for the Daily Mail Published: 22:01 GMT, 9 January 2020 | Updated: 00:52 GMT, 11 January 2020 SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid (Bloomsbury £12.99, 320 pp) I loved this extraordinarily deft debut, written with wisdom, kindness and sharp humour. Set in Pennsylvania, the book confronts issues of privilege, race … Read more
PICTURE THIS By Gerry Fallon For The Daily Mail Published: 22:00 GMT, 16 January 2020 | Updated: 22:00 GMT, 16 January 2020 100 WOMEN, 100 STYLES by Tamsin Blanchard (Laurence King £19.99, 232 pp) 100 WOMEN, 100 STYLES by Tamsin Blanchard (Laurence King £19.99, 232 pp) You may not agree with all the author’s choices … Read more
MUST READS By Jane Shilling for the Daily Mail Published: 22:00 GMT, 16 January 2020 | Updated: 15:46 GMT, 17 January 2020 NIGHTINGALE POINT by Luan Goldie (HQ £8.99, 384 pp) On a stifling summer’s day the residents of Nightingale Point, a London tower block, are going about their lives. Mary, a nurse, is feeling … Read more
Before graduating from the UEA’s prestigious creative writing programme, Deepa Anappara worked as a journalist in India
POPULAR FICTION By Wendy Holden for the Daily Mail Published: 22:02 GMT, 16 January 2020 | Updated: 16:33 GMT, 17 January 2020 MIXTAPE by Jane Sanderson (Bantam £12.99, 416 pp) MIXTAPE by Jane Sanderson (Bantam £12.99, 416 pp) Back in 1970s Sheffield, teenage pop obsessives Dan and Alison were madly in love. But then Alison … Read more
SCI-FI/FANTASY By Jamie Buxton For Daily Mail Published: 22:02 GMT, 16 January 2020 | Updated: 16:36 GMT, 17 January 2020 HIGHFIRE by Eoin Colfer (Jo Fletcher £16.99, 384 pp) HIGHFIRE by Eoin Colfer (Jo Fletcher £16.99, 384 pp) Meet Vern, a trash-talking dragon; Squib, a swamp-dwelling Cajun of scant resources and good intentions, but avoid … Read more
HISTORY LADIES CAN’T CLIMB LADDERS by Jane Robinson (Doubleday £20, 368 pp) The British Press reported in the early 1930s that, ‘after exhaustive research’, professors in the psychology department of a German university had concluded that ‘women cannot calculate, and when confronted with abstract mathematical problems the female intellect breaks down entirely’. Margaret Partridge (1891-1967) … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK A WORLD OF MY OWN by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (Adlard Coles £10.99, 256 pp) We live in a world of maximum connectivity, where you can sit in Abu Dhabi and do keyhole surgery on someone in Aberdeen; where a Twitter frenzy in Kenilworth can be picked up in seconds in Kyoto; … Read more