A jaded cynical writer who has tired of ghostwriting the biographies of forgettable celebrities and faded stars leaps at the offer to write the biopic of former UK prime minister Alan Lang. Once popular Lang has left office in disgrace due to war in the Middle East. Holding up in a wintry desolate Martha's Vineyard he awaits an imminent war crimes trial.

The unnamed writer discovers that his predecessor who had not completed his manuscript was found washed ashore on a beach and his untimely death was not natural. He encounters Lang's wife who was the real driving force behind her husband’s

New TV drama is rare during Covid-19, and the best so far - Normal People and I May Destroy You - have already been reviewed to death. So I’ve decided to give a shout out to an unassuming comedy series that ran from 2009 to 2018 which, while not exactly cutting edge, gives an insight into the weird world of Trump-voting America that is compassionate as well as satirical.

Frankie and Mike Heck live with their 3 children in the “Hoosier” state of Indiana - in the middle both geographically and socially. They’re not quite on the bread-line, but it’s a close call at times, as Frankie urges her

A book about house arrest, now doesn’t this sound familiar. This novel is set around a Russian count Alexander Ilyich Rostov sentenced to spend his life under house arrest in The Metropol Hotel, one of the most exclusive establishments in 1920s Moscow.

What follows is a diary of thirty years penned by the charming Alexander from the confines of this hotel located next to the Kremlin. Part historical novel and part thriller this book will take you on a journey from the formation of the Soviet Union up until the death of Stalin.

This latest book by Tracy Chevalier is set in rural England the period between the two world wars.

The people are coming to terms with the loss of life in the Great War and also of the sacrifices made by those at home. The main character Violet Speedwell has lost her financé and her brother in the war. She is one of what was known as the “Surplus women”. She moves away from her home and her controlling mother, to the nearby city of Winchester. She sets about forging a new life around her job in this city.

The Red Moth is the fourth book in Sam Eastland's brilliant Inspector Pekkala series. Pekkala is a Finnish soldier who was at one time employed by Tsar Nicholas II as a personal detective. Stalin releases him from a Gulag after nine years when he decides he needs his skills and employs him as his chief investigator. The Red Moth is set in 1941 on the eve of the Battle of Stalingrad. Pekkala is asked to uncover the secret of an apparently ordinary painting of a red moth belonging to a passenger of a crashed German scout plane. As always, Pekkala is ably assisted by his friend and colleague

The story begins in Dublin in 1964, when Tatty is nearly four and the extended family is celebrating the christening of baby Luke. Tatty is sure that the baby has just begun to see properly, ‘Or nearly see anyway. He’s all excited, squinting and blinking, his little tongue sticks in and out. His little finger scrabs the air like he’s pulling away the last bit of veil, and his feet punch the end of his dress’. It is a lovely, evocative image with which to begin the story.

The journalist, correspondent, editor and historian Max Hastings recreates the horror, tragedy, sorrow, stupidity, courage, inhumanity and fanaticism in the final year of WW2 in the Pacific as the Japanese Empire staring defeat in the face fought on against the Allies until the inevitable came in 1945.

He takes the reader into the corridors of power in Tokyo, Washington, London and Moscow as the fate of millions and the post war global order hung in the balance. We encounter Japanese soldiers who threw themselves into suicidal defences at Iwo Jima, Saipan and Okinawa; kamikaze pilots who flew

Ostensibly a walking tour through the East Anglia counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, this novel is much more; it is a profound reflection on identity and human mortality in the face of the ravages of time, or the Eternal Present of the 17th century philosopher, Sir Thomas Browne, whose ghostly presence haunts this work. Each chapter represents a leg on the narrator’s journey and his reflections on his location then unwind in unexpected directions, some personal, some historical, but always mediations on the passage of time and how it undoes the work of man. Thus, from the dreary present of the

This is a lovely book about little readers starting school and beginning to read books by themselves. Natalie and her monster brother Alphonse both love stories and even make up some of their own! But when Natalie discovers that reading is a little trickier (and more boring) than she was expecting, she declares that she does not like books anymore!

This kind of frustration with starting to learn something new is something that we can all empathize with, and the author deftly mixes this sympathy with the enjoyment of sharing stories and creative solutions.