E. F. Benson (1867-1940) came from an extraordinarily gifted family. His father, Edward White Benson was an Archbishop of Canterbury, his brother Arthur Christopher Benson wrote the words to ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, another brother, Robert Hugh Benson was also a novelist and their sister, Margaret a noted Egyptologist. Benson himself was an archaeologist, memoirist, short story writer and novelist. His fame now rests on his comic novels, particularly the series of novels that feature the characters Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Lucas or Lucia. His two protagonists first meet in Mapp and Lucia

This is a story of simple lives told with extraordinary empathy. It is beautifully crafted, alive and quietly magnificent.

Tom Guthrie is struggling to bring up his two young sons alone, whilst in the same town a schoolgirl Victoria Roubideaux is pregnant and homeless. Whilst Tom’s young boys find their way without their mother, old batchelor brothers Harold and Raymond McPherson, gentle, solitary, gruff and unpolished agree to take Victoria in, unaware that their lives will change forever.

I have been fascinated by Ancient Egypt since visiting my local museum as a child; a similar experience in Bolton Museum set Joyce Tyldesley upon her career as an Egyptologist and writer. This museum also boasted a reproduction of the famous Nefertiti bust, so Tyldesley’s search for the mysterious queen first began. She has written extensively on various aspects of Ancient Egyptian history, including Cleopatra and Hatshepsut, the female Pharaoh as well as a previous book on Nefertiti.

This book is based around the discovery and subsequent history of a beautiful bust of Nefertiti (mother-in-law

One man’s struggle to expose the corruption at the very heart of Russia’s political system.

This book is both political thriller and exposé of the dark world of corruption in the aftermath of the Soviet Union collapse. Browder shines a light into the workings of a dysfunctional system where backhanders and bribes are common place and brutality is second nature. Political skulduggery all the way from the heart of The Kremlin to the Russian Oligarchs.

In trying times we tend to seek comfort in the old and familiar, and boy have I been doing that lately. Amazingly, it was only last month I reviewed Robert Harris' apocalyptic novel, The Second Sleep, which, despite its chilling theme, seemed charmingly far-fetched. Cut then to my third week of social isolation, and the world appears to have tilted on its axis, if not disappeared from view altogether. It would be fair to say a certain ennui has set in. Time to bring out the big guns - by which I mean that tried and true antidote to the blues, Mr Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.

This is not a review

When "The Left Hand of Darkness" was published in 1969 it was a pioneering work of feminist science fiction, a radical exploration of identity and sexuality. Set in the far distant future, in Le Guin’s fictional Hannish universe which features in much of her fiction, it explores the struggles of Genly Ai, an envoy sent by the Ekumen, an interplanetary federation of planets, as he attempts to complete his mission on the planet Gethen (Winter). He is tasked with getting Gethen to join the Ekumen but is frustrated by his inability to understand shifgrethor, a sophisticated code of conduct behind

Having only become aware and tuned into this excellent radio programme for the last ten years, it came as some surprise to me to learn that it's half a century old! It airs on RTÉ Radio 1 every Sunday morning at 9.10 am, opening with the trumpets of Samuel Scheidt's "Galliard Battaglia". Personal essays, poems, factual accounts are read out by their writer, with music played between each reading.

Meet Aurelio Zen, an Italian anti-hero detective. In Cabal, 1993, Zen is summoned to assist the Vatican in the investigation of an apparent suicide of a prince, who falls from one of St. Peter's balconies. Initially, Zen agrees with the verdict of suicide but the murders of a series of witnesses forces him to dig deeper. Dibdin is a superb writer. This really is a fantastic and pacey story with lots of intricate twists and turns. Zen himself is a very engaging and complex character with an intriguing private life. Dibdin also excels in his portrayal of the labyrinthine and frequently corrupt

In February 1862 at the height of the American Civil War, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, host a lavish state dinner in the White House. Upstairs in his room, their eleven- year old son, Willie lies ill, supposedly with the flu, but in fact the boy is dying of typhoid. The boy’s death leaves his parents devastated, particularly the president, already worn down by the carnage of the war. Following the funeral, the grief-stricken Lincoln visits the crypt and removes his son’s body from its coffin to hold him one last time. While his father grieves, the spirit of his son now materialises in a