Reviewed by Olivia Ackers Esther Freud (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc: 2025) This book serves as a follow-up to her first book, Hideous Kinky, and explores childhood, identity and the sisterhood between Lucy and Bea, as well as betrayal and love. The book also looks at how motherhood and the impact of parenting can shape individuals. How motherhood (and what would’ve been) plays into this book, especially as it leads up to the end of the first half and the start of the second. T

Reviewed by James Phillips Emily Howes (Phoenix Orion Publishing: 2024) Gainsborough may be one of the nation's most renowned painters, but how much do you know about his life? I should imagine precious little. We are delighted to be welcoming Emily Howes in October who has revealed the man and his family in her debut novel, The Painter’s Daughters. Howes has just published Mrs Dickens to great acclaim and we expect her to talk about this book too. The novel follows Gainsb

Reviewed by Gill Lowe Sue Prideaux (Faber& Faber: 2024) In the first detailed biography of Paul Gauguin in 30 years Sue Prideaux re-examines his astonishing life, ‘not to condemn, not to excuse, but simply to shed new light on the man and the myth’ (xv). Recent evidence challenges the view that Gauguin was ‘the bad boy who spread syphilis around the South Seas’ (xv). In 2000, a glass jar holding four decayed human teeth was discovered in Gauguin’s final home in the Marquesas

Reviewed by Melanie Selfe Owen Hatherley (Allen Lane, Penguin Books: 2025) Owen Hatherley’s The Alienation Effect tells the stories of intellectuals and artists who migrated to Britain during the 1930s from the countries in Central and Eastern Europe that were over-run by fascism. He opens his account with the moment he emerges from treatment in the eye clinic of St. Thomas’s Hospital in London to notice the Palace of Westminster across the river, a ‘quintessentially, insuff

Reviewed by Jeff Taylor Jacky Colliss Harvey (Haus Publishing Ltd: 2026) Suffolk has been waiting for far too long for a book such as Jacky Colliss Harvey’s Thoughtlands: Walking in Writers’ Suffolk, which treats the county’s rich literary heritage with such personal fondness. It was released on April 2nd by Haus Publishing The author is well known as a writer and editor. She is the author of the bestselling Red: A History of the Redhead (2015), The Animal’s Companion: Pe

Reviewed by Jacquie Knott Eimear McBride (Faber and Faber: 2025) In anticipation of Eimear McBride’s visit to us I gave myself the great pleasure of rereading three of her four novels. A Girl is A Half Formed Thing (Galley Beggar Press: 2013) was her debut novel. Famously, it took nine years to find a publisher, but then gathered many of the major book prizes including the Desmond Elliot Prize, The Bailey’s Women’s Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize. Her second novel The Lesser

Reviewed by Dymphna Crowe Ashley Hickson-Lovence (Faber& Faber: 2026) Ashley Hickson-Lovence has written a diverse range of books: novels, poetry and Young Adult fiction. Using different genres and writing styles, he gives voice to ordinary people, usually unheard. Ashley’s first novel, The 392, was set on a London bus over a thirty six minute journey from Hoxton to Highbury. Your Show (2022) is a fictionalised story of Uriah Rennie, a trailblazing black football referee. Wi

Reviewed by Jeff Taylor Wendy Pratt (The Borough Press an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers Ltd paperback edition published 2025) In this recently published memoir, The Ghost Lake , the Yorkshire writer Wendy Pratt writes about making a pilgrimage around the periphery of Paleolake Flixton, an extinct post-glacial lake in North Yorkshire, a handful of miles south of Scarborough. She visits locations ‘that have acted as journey markers in her own life’. Wendy takes ‘a serie

Reviewed by James Phillips (UoS Talking Shop Press) Have you ever considered Suffolk’s occupational heritage? Whilst agriculture with the county’s lush, green fields, or perhaps the port industry with those towering cranes may spring to mind, the current postgraduates at the University of Suffolk have explored the concept in their latest anthology Work: an Anthology of Suffolk Stories. At the launch in October, Dr Amanda Hodgkinson introduced the evening, with Senior English

Reviewed by Olivia Ackers Ashley Hickson-Lovence (Penguin Random House: 2024) Wild East is a Young Adult verse novel about an East London boy trying to navigate a move to East Anglia and pursuing his dream to become a rapper. What captured me first about this novel was how easily the rhythm of the language flows, and creates a wonderfully moving story. In fact, it was so quick and enjoyable to read, I finished in a day! We follow Ronny, a fourteen year old boy, in the after

Reviewed by Keith Jones Lamorna Ash (Bloomsbury Circus: 2025 ) Two friends of Lamorna Ash had formed a comedy duo. They did not seem the sort to adopt a religious style of life, so she was astonished when they decided to seek ordination in the Church of England. Her astonishment led her to reconsider the widespread view that interest in, let alone practice of, the Christian religion was inexorably waning in the United Kingdom. So she started asking people of her own and more

Reviewed by Olivia Ackers Ferdia Lennon (Macmillan Publishing Group: 2024) In 2024, Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, and it is no wonder why. The blend of dark Irish humour and Greek mythology uses a unique, almost absurd, voice in its storytelling. This novel depicts two unemployed potters, Lampo and Gelon, who amidst a war-torn Sicily, decide to put on a show. They aim to produce a performance offering to feed any Athenians who ca

Reviewed by Olivia Ackers Josh Winning (Penguin Michael Joseph: 2024) I thoroughly enjoyed the slasher atmosphere that is present throughout this book, which was heightened by the choice of music I listened to whilst reading it (Friday the 13th-esque sound rooms on YouTube!) I completely devoured this book (or did it devour me?) and how it was wrapped up. I am a huge fan of horror movies and books, so this is right up my alley. Josh enriches the piece with references to hor

Reviewed by Andrew Burton James Canton (Canongate: 2025) Questions of scale lie at the heart of the climate and ecological emergency. Many of us feel overwhelmed at the scale of environmental destruction unfolding at a planetary level and feel powerless to bring about any meaningful change through our own actions. This can lead to a crippling sense of paralysis, even hopelessness. What, we may ask, can be done? For James Canton, Director of Wild Writing at the University of E

Reviewed by Dymphna Crowe Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché For fans of Helen Macdonald this is an unexpected departure. Helen is best known for her book H is For Hawk , in which described how she processed her grief after the sudden death of her father by training a goshawk that she named Mabel. Her personal story was entwined with reflections on falconry, nature and healing. Prophet , on the other hand is a present day science fiction thriller with a touch of noir, that came

Reviewed by Jeff Taylor By Christopher Reeve (Amberley Publishing: 2025) I was looking forward to reading this book as it’s almost thirty...

Reviewed by Keith Jones by Noreen Masud (Hamish Hamilton: 2023) When Noreen visits the Suffolk Book League in March, I for one will be...

Reviewed by Olivia Ackers by Lottie Mills (Oneworld Publication: 2024) In 2020, Lottie Mills won the BBC Young Writers’ Award for her...