Is there anything better fun at Christmas than a light read about dysfunctional rich people? Look no further than Revenge (Blink Publishing, 2022), Tom Bower’s new book about ‘Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors’. I first discovered Tom Bower when I read...
If you read a lot of murder mysteries, you’ll know there are certain characters, plot twists and narrative tricks that get reused time and time again. The dim sidekick who needs everything explained to them. The unaccountable coincidence that casts fresh light on the...
Looking for a cracker of a non-fiction Christmas read for yourself or that difficult-to-buy-for in-law? We’d heartily recommend this one. Beyond (HarperCollins, 2021) tells the tale of Yuri Gagarin and the race between the USSR and United States (US) to be first to...
It’s easy to see why Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light (Text Publishing, A$32.99) was chosen as the 2022 Miles Franklin Award winner. The novel is a creative exploration of how childhood neglect and abuse can have profound ramifications in a person’s later, adult life....
If you’re looking for a fast-paced chronological history of books, this isn’t it (though Mark Kurlansky’s Paper: Paging Through History might be more up your alley). Instead, Papyrus by Irene Vallejo (translated by Charlotte Whittle) unravels as a series of literary...
When poet Eliza Acton is told by her publisher that “poetry is not the business of a lady” and is asked instead to write a cookbook, she is appalled at the idea. But when her mother is forced to sell most of the family’s belongings and open a boarding house, she...
