Reviews 

I have never read this before, although our old paperback edition was bought 41 years ago. So better late than never. I didn’t enjoy The...

I had never read this and really enjoyed it, although probably a holiday/beach read. Written with great power, anger and a lot of...

A very slight novelette, written as a film script when Greene was contracted to Hollywood post war as he couldn’t fund life from writing....

Took me a long time to read this (not long) book, but a lot of sport on TV and I struggled to get into it. The characters all have banal...

Not a lot of humour or mirth in this. I enjoyed The Age of Innocence (593) and thought I would try another Wharton. Proved to be (by the...

Good, dystopian novel, which I am not sure whether I have read before. In some ways, very like 1984. I enjoyed it and particularly her...

Maybe optimistic to pick a difficult late James after enjoying 593, but you can see the logic I hope. And I read the Ambassadors...

I have tried (I don’t think successfully) to read this is the past, but it is brilliant. The themes are all Henry James, but the cultural...

This is interesting because I first read this in June 2012 (no 19) and hated it! 6 years later I thought it was pretty good; not that...

I don’t think I have ever read any Muriel Spark before, but put her on my list after reading 568. Quite a strange book; Jean Brodie’s...

I thought I would read some Dickens, partly because Susan Hill (568) likes him, and chose this as I don’t like the novels. Dickens does...

I found this quite hard work, but ultimately probably enjoyed it. Emma is a prototype unreliable narrator (although not the narrator in...

His third book, which we seem to have had in the house for years, but I had never read. One girl, 2 men in love with her. Friends prior...

This is the book I meant to read, a domestic spy story, but very good. Maurice Castle is a minor functionary in the security services in...

Reading this for bizarrely incorrect reason. Meant to read The Human Factor after enjoying 554 above, but both it and The Honorary...

Read this about a year ago with little comprehension. So the plot is: Querry, a successful and celebrity architect turns up in a Catholic...

Tried to read this, I think 5 years ago at Stuart’s in Spain, but gave up. These 19th century novels are incredibly long, but I got to...

Been meaning to read this for years, strange and paradoxically both difficult and easy to read. Very long and unfinished, in fact Gogol...

Struggled to get into this, but it is a cleverly written portrait, not so much of a psychopath but of a disintegrated marriage which...

During a sleepless night on 15 August, I began re-reading Patrick Gale’s Rough Music on my kindle as a bit of emergency late night...