The 6 Shortlisted books for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

After the tragic death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house and sound variously pleasant, angry or sad. Then his mother develops a hoarding problem, and the voices grow more clamorous.

So Benny seeks refuge in the silence of a large public library.

The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini

Alethea Lopez is about to turn 40. Fashionable, feisty and fiercely independent, she manages a downtown boutique, but behind closed doors she’s covering up bruises from her abusive partner and seeking solace in an affair with her boss. When she witnesses a woman murdered by a jealous lover, the reality of her own future comes a little too close to home.

The Island of Missing trees by Elif Shafak

It’s 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the blackened beams from which hang garlands of garlic, chilli peppers and wild herbs.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage and of a woman’s relentless errors. Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer.

Flora dies on All Souls’ Day, but she simply won’t leave the store.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Soaring, breathtakingly ambitious novel that weaves together the astonishing lives of a 1950s vanished female aviator and the modern-day Hollywood actress who plays her on screen. For fans of TAYLOR JENKINS REID, WILLIAM BOYD and ANN PATCHETT From her days as a wild child in prohibition America to the blitz and glitz of wartime London, from the rugged shores of New Zealand to a lonely iceshelf in Antarctica, Marian Graves is driven by a need for freedom and danger. 

A gift, her mother once said, not everybody gets. So why is everything broken? Why is Martha – on the edge of 40 – friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave?Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe – as she has long believed – there is something wrong with her.the

Something that broke when a little bomb went off in her brain, at 17, and left her changed in a way that no doctor or therapist has ever been able to explain. Forced to return to her childhood home to live with her dysfunctional, bohemian parents (but without the help of her devoted, foul-mouthed sister Ingrid), Martha has one last chance to find out whether a life is ever too broken to fix.

The Hemlock Cure By Joanne Burn

There are men in the village who speak of witchcraft, and Isabel has a past to hide. So she tells nobody her fears about Wulfric, the pious, reclusive apothecary. Mae, Wulfric’s youngest daughter, dreads her father’s rage if he discovers what she keeps from him.
Like her feelings for Rafe, Isabel’s ward, or that she studies from Wulfric’s forbidden books at night. But others have secrets too. Secrets darker than any of them could have imagined. When Mae makes a horrifying discovery, Isabel is the only person she can turn to. But helping Mae will place them both in unspeakable peril. And meanwhile another danger is on its way from London.
One that threatens to engulf them all . . .

Published 10th February 2022 Our Price £12.99 (RRP £14.99)

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

SELECTED AS ONE OF THE OBSERVER’S 10 BEST DEBUT NOVELISTS OF 2022

‘Outstanding… a seething, haunting delight‘ Beth Underdown, award-winning author of THE WITCHFINDER’S SISTER ‘Darkly compelling and dripping with atmosphere… bewitching’ Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FAMILIARS ‘

A beguiling tale of superstition, myth and murder, perfect for fans of The Binding, The Essex Serpent and Once Upon a River.

SHE IS AWAKE… Norfolk, 1643. With civil war tearing England apart, reluctant soldier Thomas Treadwater is summoned home by his sister, who accuses a new servant of improper conduct with their widowed father.

By the time Thomas returns home, his father is insensible, felled by a stroke, and their new servant is in prison, facing charges of witchcraft. Thomas prides himself on being a rational, modern man, but as he unravels the mystery of what has happened, he uncovers not a tale of superstition but something dark and ancient, linked to a shipwreck years before. Something has awoken, and now it will not rest.

Richly researched, incredibly atmospheric, and deliciously unsettling, The Leviathan is set in England during a time of political and religious turbulence. It is a tale of family and loyalty, superstition and sacrifice, but most of all it is a spellbinding mystery and a story of impossible things. ‘Thoroughly gripping and utterly absorbing’ Jennifer Saint, author of ARIADNE’skilfully blends historical detail, myth, faith and the fantastic into a dark and compelling story of huge imagination’ Anita Frank, author of THE LOST ONES

Published 10th February 2022 Our Price £12.99 (RRP £14.99)

Little Wing by Freya North

Little Wing by Freya North is a compelling story of family secrets, courage and resilience, which moves between the story of a pregnant teenager sent to a remote part of the UK in the 1960s, and Nell and Dougie, whose lives collide in the early millennium as secrets surface and answers are sought, all against the backdrop of The Isle of Harris.

 

 

Learwife by J R Thorp

I am here. Word has come. Care-bent King Lear is dead, driven mad and betrayed. His three daughters too, broken in battle.

But someone has survived: Lear’s queen. Exiled to a nunnery years ago, written out of history, her name forgotten. Now she can tell her story.

Though her grief and rage may threaten to crack the earth open, she knows she must seek answers. Why was she sent away in shame and disgrace? What has happened to Kent, her oldest friend and ally? And what will become of her now, in this place of women? To find peace she must reckon with her past and make a terrible choice – one upon which her destiny, and that of the entire abbey, rests. Giving unforgettable voice to a woman whose absence has been a tantalising mystery, Learwife is a breathtaking novel of loss, renewal and how history bleeds to the present.

October 2021: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

September 2021: The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

Body of Stars by Laura Maylene Walter. No future, dear reader, can break a woman on its own. A bold and dazzling exploration of fate and female agency in a world where women own the future but not their own bodies. Like every woman, Celeste Morton holds a map of the future in her skin, every mole and freckle a clue to unlocking what will come to pass. Celeste’s marks have always been closely entwined with her brother, Miles. Her skin holds a future only he, as a gifted interpreter, can read and he has always considered his sister his practice ground. But when Celeste’s marks change she learns a devastating secret about her brother’s future that she must keep to herself – and Miles is keeping a secret of his own. Fiction Indie Book of the month – March

Can You Keep a Secret by Melissa Castrillon If you met a dragon, could you keep it secret? One day in the forest, Winnie discovers the last dragon in the whole world. His fabulous friends, the gryphon, the winged lion and the tree-man, are the last of their kind, too. They’ll be in danger if grown-ups discover them. But can Winnie really keep them secret? With its brave, resourceful heroine and magical endangered animals, this exquisite picture book is a perfect story for our time. Children’s Indie Book of the Month – March 2021

Funny Books for Troubling Times

17 of the Funniest Books published by Penguin

Scoop by Evelyn War (1938), Carry On Jeeves (1925), Grown Ups by Marian Keyes (2020), I Feel Bad About My Neck (2006), Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954) The Secret Life of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue  Townsend (1982), White Teeth by Zadie Smith (1999), The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams (2020) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne (1759), The Wangs Vs the World by Jade Chang (2016), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979), Don’t Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli (1973), Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson (1995), Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me by Mindy Kaling (2011), Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing about the dog) by Jerome K Jerome (1889), Diary of a drag Queen by Crystal Rasmussen (2019), Reasons to be Careful by Nina Stibbe (2019),

Between the Covers on BBC2

Click on the link below and see some Between the Covers authors join Sara Cox for an ‘irreverant, entertaining show where books spark the banter’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n7sl

COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

Announced on Tuesday 26th January, The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey, was voted the Costa Awards Book Of the Year.

April 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch. David, a fisherman, sings to himself in his pirogue, waiting for a catch – and attracts a sea-dweller he doesn’t expect. Aycayia, a centuries old mermaid, is drawn to his singing. But her curiosity is her undoing when she is caught by American tourists… David rescues her and hides her away, where she slowly, painfully turns into a woman. Order your copy today for £9.99

The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics transforms the way we think about the world with his reflections on science, history and humanity. In this collection of writings, the logbook of an intelligence always on the move, Carlo Rovelli follows his curiosity and invites us on a voyage through science, history, philosophy and politics. Charming, pithy and elegant, this book is the perfect gateway to the universe of one of the most influential scientists of our age.

‘What is unexpected in A Promised Land is the former president’s candour’

David Olusoga, Observer

 

Clanlands is whisky, warfare and a Scottish adventure like no other!

Two men, one country and a lot of whisky. As stars of Outlander, Sam and Graham eat, sleep and breathe the Highlands on this epic road trip around their homeland. They discover that the real thing is even greater than fiction.

 

This Week’s Books in the Media

The Guardian‘s Diana Evans selected Luster as a Book of the Day, writing, “humour combines with crystalline prose in the story of a young American woman at the intersection of capitalism, racism and sexism.” Over in the Sunday Times, Mika Ross-Southall dubbed the debut “caustic, candid and convincing,” whilst the New Yorker‘s Alexandra Schwartz called the novel “a highly pleasurable interrogation of pleasure.”

Jenni Fagan’s Luckenbooth (William Heinemann) haunted the reviews over the weekend. In the Sunday Telegraph, Francesca Carington gave the book a near perfect score, calling the gothic tale “seedy, sexy and strange.” The Scotsman‘s Stuart Kelly continued the praise: “Fagan’s new novel is radical, daring and beautifully written.” Finally, in the Times, Sarah Ditum called the title a contender for the weirdest novel of 2021, adding “there’s a force in Luckenbooth’s bizarre assemblage that could come only from an author ambitious enough to risk making a mess.”

The Booker Prize 2020 Shortlist – the authors

Top row L to R

Diane Cook is a critically acclaimed author and short story writer, living in Brooklyn. A first time Booker shortlister or even longlister

Douglas Stuart is a Scot born and raised in Glasgow. Shuggie Bain is his debut novel after moving to New York City to follow a career in fashion design.

Avni Doshi born in new Jersey currently based in Dubai. Her debut novel is published in India under the title Girl in White Cotton

Second Row L to R

Tsitsi Dangerembga lives in Zimbabwe. Winner of Commonwealth Writers’ Prize with debut novel Nervous Conditions

Maaza Mengiste raised in Addis Ababa, her previous novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze was listed in the Guardian ten Best Comtemporary African Books. She lives in New York City.

Brandon Taylor has a serious background in Literature and writing in the U.S. Real Life is his first novel.

 

 

The Booker Prize 2020 Longlist

       

The Room Where it Happened: A White House Memoir by John Bolton

The book Trump tried to stop being published – unsuccessfully!

As President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton spent many of his 453 days in the room where it happened, and the facts speak for themselves. The result is a White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. With almost daily access to the President, John Bolton has produced a precise rendering of his days in and around the Oval Office.

And in July  . . .

Watch for Much and Never Enough due out on 28 July. 

Tell-all by Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump, has been temporarily blocked from publication by a supreme court judge.

In these troubled times maybe we should all be reading books to understand more about Race and Racism in our society.

     

5 classic novels about race, racism and inequality that everyone should read in their lifetime

                

One to lift your spirits – a laugh out loud.

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Leena is too young to feel stuck. Eileen is too old to start over. Maybe it’s time for The Switch… So Leena proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love, and Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. ‘SO CHARMING, SO SWEET AND SO LOVELY’ MARIAN KEYES. Beth O’Leary, author of The Flatshare

This is a searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers – race and class have shaped Akala’s life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Akala makes us quietly aware of how much we have left to learn about the world… He doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths backed up with hard facts, which make you sit up and pay attention.’ – Oxford Times

Next a straight-up thriller…from Celeste Ng, While the plot whisks you breathlessly along, it lays out the bones of a debate about race and parenthood, Sunday Times, Pick of the Paperbacks

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Now a major TV series . . .  Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.  In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colour of the houses. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardson’s. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

‘OUTSTANDING’ – MATT HAIG, ‘TO SAY I LOVED THIS BOOK IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT’ – REECE WITHERSPOON

Next a masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile and belonging,

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

n the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020

Chair of the judges, Martha Lane Fox, said: “Ahead of the longlist meeting I was anxious that the negotiations between judges might be as arduous as Brexit, but it was an absolute delight to pick our final 16 books. Entries for the Prize’s 25th year have been spectacular and we revelled in the variety, depth, humanity and joy of the writing – we hope everyone else will too.”

On Wednesday 22nd April, the judges announced they have whittled the 16 down to 6 for the shortlist, as follows

• Dominicana by Angie Cruz
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
• The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
• Hamnet by Maggie O’ Farrell
• Weather by Jenny Offill

The winner will be announced on Wednesday 9th September, this date has been pushed back from June, due to the current situation.

Click on the link for more details about the Women’s Prize

Women’s Prize for Fiction

• The Trail
• The gripping debut crime novel from James Ellson, former Moss Side detective.

Q & A with James:

So James, your book is out this week?  Yes! I’ve been writing it for 10 years, and finally I’ve got there!

In a nutshell, what’s it about? A missing person enquiry leads Manchester DCI Rick Castle to Nepal

So, a crime thriller. Why so?  They say write about what you know. I was a police officer for 15 years, first in London, then in Manchester and finishing at Moss Side. Really, Moss Side finished me. That was 10 years ago, and I’ve been writing ever since.

Having the quote from Paula Hawkins on the cover is amazing. ‘A pacy and intelligent thriller.’ How did that come about?  I sent my memoir From Cop to Coppicer to a number of agents including, as it turned out Paula Hawkins’ agent. She asked if Paula could get in touch. Of course, I said yes, and subsequently I was credited in the acknowledgements to Paula’s sequel to Girl On The Train, Into The Water. In December I asked her if she’d review my book, and fantastically she said she would!

Why’s it called The Trail? It hasn’t always – the book started life as Missing, then changed to Missing in Nepal. I finally settled on The Trail for three reasons. It suggests both a police trail of evidence and also a footpath in the mountains. It’s also a nod to one of my favourite authors Cormac McCarthy, and his book The Road.

What makes it different from other crime thrillers? Firstly, the setting is Nepal and secondly the detecting method.  Many crime thrillers focus on ‘clues’ (DNA, fingerprints etc) but in reality crimes with these leads are not as interesting to investigate. What makes ‘The Trail’ different to most in its genre is the real investivative technique. Detectives start an investivation by asking themselves 4 questions (which are taught on every SIO, Senior Investigating Officer, course in the country)

        What do I know?

        What are my hypotheses for what happened?

        What else do I know?

        How can I find the information I need?

These 4 questions, and the developing hypotheses, form part of DCI Castle’s investigation.

Thank you, and very good luck with your first book, I look forward to reading it!

It’s a pleasure, thank you.

Don’t forget you can meet James at RM on Saturday 7th March between 12 – 2pm

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade H/B Out now

Mecklenburgh Square in Bloomsbury was passed through in the interwar years by H. D., Dorothy L. Sayers, Jane Harrison, Eileen Power and Virginia Woolf during a period of expanding female possibility, with these creative pioneers operating in this liberated new territory. Wade’s group biography reveals the place of Mecklenburgh Square in each writer’s development.

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson P/B Out now

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village in North Yorkshire, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son Nathan and ageing Labrador Dido, both at the discretion of his former partner Julia. It’s a picturesque setting, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes. Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, seems straightforward, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network-and back into the path of someone from his past.

Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking new literary crime novel, both sharply funny and achingly sad, by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today. THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER.

Elevation by Stephen King  P/B Out now

‘A master simply elevating his own legendary game yet again’ USA TodayIn the small town of Castle Rock word gets around quickly. That’s why Scott Carey only confides in his friend Doctor Bob Ellis about his strange condition. Every day he’s losing weight – but without looking any different.

War Doctor: Surgery on the Front line  by David Nott  P/B Out now

For more than twenty-five years, David Nott has taken unpaid leave from his job as a general and vascular surgeon with the NHS to volunteer in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones. From Sarajevo under siege in 1993, to clandestine hospitals in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, he has carried out life-saving operations and field surgery in the most challenging conditions, and with none of the resources of a major London teaching hospital. The conflicts he has worked in form a chronology of twenty-first-century combat: Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Darfur, Congo, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and Syria.

Doctors on the ground needed to learn how to treat the appalling injuries that war inflicts upon its victims. Since 2015, the foundation he set up with his wife, Elly, has disseminated the knowledge he has gained, training other doctors in the art of saving lives threatened by bombs and bullets. War Doctor is his extraordinary story.

‘Brave, compassionate and inspiring – it left me in floods of tears’ Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt.

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe  P/B Out now

Teenager Lizzie Vogel has a new job as a dental assistant. This is not as glamorous as it sounds. At least it means mostly getting away from her alcoholic, nymphomaniacal, novel-writing mother.

But, if Lizzie thinks being independent means sex with her boyfriend (he prefers bird-watching), strict boundaries (her boss keeps using her loo) or self-respect (surely only actual athletes get fungal foot infections?) she’s still got a lot more growing up to do.

‘Funny, charming, odd-in-the-best-way and gorgeously uplifting! A delight from start to finish’ Marian Keyes

Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia;s History by Sunil Amrith P/B Out now

A bold new perspective on the history of South Asia, telling its story through its climate, and the long quest to tame its watersSouth Asia’s history has been shaped by its waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines this history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, rivers and seas – and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. He shows how fears and dreams of water have, throughout South Asia, shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations.

An enthralling, elegantly written and, ultimately, profoundly alarming history’ Economist

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave H/B out on 6th February 2020

Inspired by the real events of the Vardo storm of 1617, The Mercies is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, and a love that may prove as dangerous as it is powerful. On Christmas Eve, 1617, the sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardo is thrown into a reckless storm. As Maren Magnusdatter watches, forty fishermen, including her father and brother, are lost to the waves – the menfolk of Vardo wiped out in an instant. Vardo is now a place of women. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilized world, Absalom Cornet knows what he needs to do to bring the women of Vardo to heel.

‘A gripping novel, beautiful and chilling’ – Madeline Miller, author of Circe

 

Costa Book Awards 2019

Overall Winner 2019

 THE VOLUNTEER 

BY JACK FAIRWEATHER

First Novel Shortlist

 

Biography Shortlist

     

Poetry Shortlist

 

Children’s Shortlist

     

All the above are on sale in the shop. The Costa Book of the Year will be announced on Tuesday 28th January 2020

January Sale

Half price 2020 diaries and calendars plus selected adult and children’s books.

The Book of Dust 2 The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

The Secret Commonwealth is truly a book for our times; a powerful adventure and a thought-provoking look at what it is to understand yourself, to grow up and make sense of the world around you. This is storytelling at its very best from one of our greatest writers.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid’s Tale, is   a modern classic. Now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic   conclusion in this riveting sequel.

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale,   the  theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip   on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At   this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets. As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER,  SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BOOKER PRIZE, AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4 

The Long Call by Anne Cleeves

This is the captivating first novel in the Two Rivers series from Sunday Times bestseller and creator of Vera and Shetland, Ann Cleeves. In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.   The Long Call

 

Tidelands by Philippa Gregory

THE BRAND NEW SERIES FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR. England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . .

Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast. This is the time of witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs, suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands. `The first in a planned series . .

Peterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre by Jacqueline Riding

Jacqueline Riding tells this tragic story with mesmerising skill’ John Bew. ‘Fast-paced and full of fascinating detail’ Tim Clayton. Marking the 200th anniversary on 16th August 2019.

On a hot late summer’s day, a crowd of 60,000 gathered in St Peter’s Field. They came from all over Lancashire – ordinary working-class men, women and children – walking to the sound of hymns and folk songs, wearing their best clothes and holding silk banners aloft. Their mood was happy, their purpose wholly serious: to demand fundamental reform of a corrupt electoral system. By the end of the day fifteen people, including two women and a child, were dead or dying and 650 injured, hacked down by drunken yeomanry after local magistrates panicked at the size of the crowd.

Peterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre adds significantly to our understanding of a tragic staging-post on Britain’s journey to full democracy. On sale now £8.99

Help the Witch by Tom Cox

Inspired by our native landscapes, Tom Cox’s first collection of short stories is a series of evocative and unsettling trips into worlds previously visited by the likes of M. R. James and E.F. Benson. Railway tunnels, the lanes and hills of the Peak District, family homes, old stones, shreds fluttering on barbed wire, night drawing in, something that might be an animal shifting on the other side of a hedge: Tom has drawn on his life-long love of weird fiction, folklore and nature’s disregarded corners to write a collection of stories that will delight fans old and new, and leave them very uneasy about turning the reading lamp off. On sale now £10.99

Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem

Lara Maiklem has scoured the banks of the Thames for over fifteen years, in pursuit of the objects that the river unearths: from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, medieval buckles to Tudor buttons, Georgian clay pipes to Victorian toys. These objects tell her about London and its lost ways of life. Moving from the river’s tidal origins in the west of the city to the point where it meets the sea in the east, Mudlarking is a search for urban solitude and history on the River Thames, which Lara calls the longest archaeological site in England. As she has discovered, it is often the tiniest objects that tell the greatest stories. On sale now £16.99

‘DRIVEN BY CURIOSITY, FREIGHTED WITH MYSTERY AND TEMPERED BY CHANCE, WONDERS GLEAM FROM EVERY PAGE’ THE SUNDAY TIMES

Get Your Boots On by Alex White  

This is young Alex White who is on a quest to get more people out enjoying nature. Illustrated throughout by Alex’s stunning photographs, this book will appeal to young and old alike. It suggests when and where to get out there; what to go looking for; how to do it; what to take… and a host of other tips.

Good, practical advice for getting closer to nature. There is also encouragement from those who have lived it with expert contributors telling their stories. Ideal for anyone who wants to get closer to nature. Perfect for those who would like to get more involved or even build a career out of their passion for wildlife. On sale now SP £13.99. Thank you Alex – cracking book!

Monastic Granges of Derbyshire by Mary Wiltshire & Sue Woore

A comprehensive introduction is followed by annotated maps, references and historical notes for each grange are arranged in alphabetical order. Summary tables highlight patterns and trends.

An appendix, researched and written by Brian Rich, considers routes taken by religious houses to reach their granges from outside Derbyshire.

The book aims to bring to life the activity and influence which monastic communities had during some four centuries in Derbyshire and how this can be interpreted today in the landscape. It is hoped it will stimulate enthusiasm for renewed investigation.

Mary Wiltshire and Sue Woore have always had a keen interest in interpreting the landscape. They have undertaken field work at the site of every grange catalogued and have reinforced this by researching documentary sources.

On sale now SP £14.99

Averse (or two) to Opera by Macclesfield author, Frank Walker

‘How wonderful Opera would be if there were no singers’ Gioachino Rossini.

Not the kind of comment one would expect from Rossini who composed 39 of them during his life! However, this book is fun for both lovers and haters. With an eye for biographical detail, as keen as Florence Foster Jenkins’ ear for perfect pitch, Frank presents a collection of comic verse exploring the absurdities of opera. A little taster for you . . . .

‘Composers treat women with little respect.

In opera it’s practically certain 

the poor prima dona will end up a goner;

It’s few that survive till the curtain’

On sale now £8.99

Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 The Longlist

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
My Sister, the Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Pisces Melissa Broder
Milkman Anna Burns
Freshwater Akwaeke Emezi
Ordinary People Diana Evans
Swan Song Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
An American Marriage Tayari Jones   THE WINNER 2019
Number One Chinese Restaurant Lillian Li
Bottled Goods Sophie van Llewyn
Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli
Praise Song for the Butterflies Bernice L. McFadden
Circe Madeline Miller
Ghost Wall Sarah Moss
Normal People by Sally Rooney

Broadcast Brothers ‘On the Radio’

by Steve and Paul Jenner

Towards the end of the last century, there was a modern – day Gold Rush; the rush to establish independent commercial radio stations in ‘virgin territories’ – or ‘white space’ – throughout the country.

The story of two brothers from a mining town in the former North Nottinghamshire coalfield, whose efforts would define this desperate dash. Without money, status or influence, they took on the power of an indifferent Establishment in pursuit of their dreams and changed the broadcasting map of the country forever. On sale here only £12.99  (RRP £14.99)

Baillie Gifford Prize 2018 for non fiction

The six shortlisted titles are

• Hello World: How to be Human in The Age of The Machine, Hannah Fry (Doubleday)
• The Spy and the Traitor, Ben Macintyre (Viking)
• Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man, Thomas Page McBee (Canongate Books)
• Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China’s Last Golden Age, Stephen R Platt (Atlantic)
• Chernobyl: History of A Tragedy, Serhii Plokhy (Allen Lane)
• She Has Her Mother’s Laugh:  The Powers, Perversions and Potential of Heredity, Carl Zimmer (Picador)

The winner of the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction will be announced on Wednesday 14 November at an awards dinner at RIBA generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

Milkman by Anna Burns, the Man Booker 2018 winner

Chair of Judges Kwame Anthony Appiah comments:

‘The language of Anna Burns’ Milkman is simply marvellous; beginning with the distinctive and consistently realised voice of the funny, resilient, astute, plain-spoken, first-person protagonist. From the opening page her words pull us into the daily violence of her world — threats of murder, people killed by state hit squads — while responding to the everyday realities of her life as a young woman, negotiating a way between the demands of family, friends and lovers in an unsettled time. The novel delineates brilliantly the power of gossip and social pressure in a tight-knit community, and shows how both rumour and political loyalties can be put in the service of a relentless campaign of individual sexual harassment. Burns draws on the experience of Northern Ireland during the Troubles to portray a world that allows individuals to abuse the power granted by a community to those who resist the state on their behalf. Yet this is never a novel about just one place or time. The local is in service to an exploration of the universal experience of societies in crisis.’

Man Booker Prize 2018 for fiction shortlist

• Anna Burns (UK)  Milkman
• Esi Edugyan (Canada)  Washington Black
• Daisy Johnson (UK)  Everything Under
• Rachel Kushner (USA)  The Mars Room
• Richard Powers (USA)  The Overstory 
• Robin Robertson (UK)  The Long Take

The 2018 winner will be announced on Tuesday 16 October in London’s Guildhall, at a dinner that brings together the shortlisted authors and well-known figures from the cultural world. The ceremony will be aired by the BBC, the prize’s broadcast partner.

Crime Novel of the Year Award

Congratulations to the winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, Stav Sherez with The Intrusions and Congratulations to John Grisham on being awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction!