books
This Boy’s Life
There are many people whose lives are an autobiography waiting to be written. The trouble is that not many of them have the talent to write it. Thankfully, Tobias Wolff is one of the rare exceptions and This Boy’s Life, …
The Garden Of Evening Mists
A good book can do many things, including making you interested in things you never had an interest in before, in people, places and events that you had up to then only a passing knowledge. And by that token Tan …
Gone Girl
Someone walking around our house the other day saw my recently finished copy of Gone Girl and said: “Ah, that’s the book that everyone’s talking about.” And it does seem that Gone Girl is one of those books. I was …
Skios
There are very few truly memorable comic novels – testament to just how hard it is to sustain what is often a single conceit over 200+ pages. You’d put classics such as Don Quixote, Tristan Shandy and Tom Jones, as …
The Secret History
I hoover up book recommendations. From family. From friends. From business contacts. Wherever I go, whoever I’m with, I’m always on the hunt for suggestions of books that I might love. I do it with films as well, but somehow …
The Priory
I am a woman of few addictions. I hardly drink alcohol, I don’t smoke, I don’t like coffee or tea… But I’m not entirely without my vices – I’m rather partial to chocolate (okay, rather more than partial), I’m entirely …
The Thoughts And Happenings Of Wilfred Price
The full name of this book is The Thoughts And Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor Of Superior Funerals, which (apart from being far too long to fit in the title above) gives you a certain idea of the whimsical nature …
Someone At A Distance
The best recommendation I can give this book is that I lent it to my mum recently when she was over from Australia and she loved it so much it (almost) took precedence over her grandchildren. Given that she absolutely …
Unwind With… Bethan Roberts, author of My Policeman
What made you want to become a writer? Reading Enid Blyton, watching the schools’ programme Watch (they showed animated stories with subtitles; I was fascinated by the speech marks!) and listening to my mum, aunt and granny telling stories in …
My Policeman
I must be the last person in the world to have discovered the recommendations on Amazon – not the automated recommendations conjured up by some algorithm, but the ones written by customers with (hopefully) similar tastes to you. It has …
