Kathryn Stockett’s characterisation in The Help is so good that it barely matters that I am almost half way through and have no idea where the story is going yet. If you haven’t chosen your read for your summer holiday yet, look no further.  

Not the Provence, but a short Sunday afternoon stroll to see the lavender in bloom.

Songs into which the band has needlessly inserted a random children’s choir, especially when the children can’t really sing in time or in tune, as in The Wombat’s Let’s Dance to Joy Division.

The recipient of a first novel award, I am particularly interested in debut novels. The Guardian have adopted a new approach in compiling the longlist for their Guardian first book award. Whilst publishers were allowed to submit their favourites for adjudication, the final spot will be left up to members of the public. Readers, bloggers and booksellers have…
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At this time of year, I always make a few additions to my reading list so that I am ready with an opinion when the Booker panel whittle the longlist down to the final six. The Man Booker Prize is changing. The last few years have seen some interesting choices finding their place onto the longlist…
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With one month to go until the deadline for votes for the nation’s favourite reads, the organisers of World Book Night have published the top ten as it currently stands. 1. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 2. Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen 3. The Book Thief Markus Zusak 4. American Gods Neil Gaiman 5. Jane Eyre Charlotte…
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There are many ways to end a song: the crafted ending (think Stairway to Heaven); the fade out (think David Bowie’s Space Oddity); the fade-out-fade-in (Strawberry Fields); the climactic noise (Foo Fighters, The Pretender). And there’s the false ending: George Michael’s Faith;  Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel’s Come Up and Make Me Smile, to name but two. There are many ways…
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“The more fiction you read, the better you are at understanding other people.” So says Professor Keith Oatley of Toronto University – and he has spent a considerable amount of time and energy gathering the evidence. Rather than simply being a form of escapism, reading helps you to open yourself out to the social world. In…
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This year’s Guildford Festival will take place from 13 – 22 October at venues across the town. Patron, Sandi Toksvig, says:   “Listening, learning, laughing. Literature both light and lofty. What’s not to love about Guildford Book Festival? For those people who live on the Festival’s doorstep it is a simple delight; for everyone else,…
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