Reviews 

Tried to read this years ago (in Oslo I think) and couldn’t get on with it. Enjoyed it much more this time; it is quite a difficult book,...

A book that P got from the library and was about to return unread. I thought it was wonderful; about war and its miseries; the central...

I think this guy is also a TV script-writer, but this was very good. Set in the East End post war, a bunch of working class on the...

Another library book via P. I am not reading at all fluently at the moment; this was quite a good book but I didn’t really enjoy it at...

This is number six in the series, and the only other one we have after no.392. So a lot of plot has flowed under the bridge. Fielding...

Very readable, but a little similar to other (I think W Boyd) books; the 20th century seen through the developing life of an individual....

Took this to Spain for aeroplane reading. I had remembered it mainly as a ‘French resistance’ novel with the dropped in British heroine,...

What a wonderful title! And a wonderful book, possibly highlight of the year so far. The story of a family, largely a man, spanning the...

Book 3 which takes us from 1942 to the end of the war. Lots of events as the girls grow up and Louise gets married to a dreadful man,...

Never read this, or any of her books, before. Huge cast of characters, introduced in short ensemble sketches, so very difficult to...

Not sure what to make of this, or exactly what genre it aspires to. I guess spy thriller. I thought it would compare interestingly with...

Another birthday present and a huge book at 700 pages. Quite a strange concept – blending real characters, as he often does, with...

Haven’t read any Martin Amis for yonks. This is a difficult book set in or around a concentration camp (although there aren’t many...

The last of the Alexandria quartet and also the last book on my list for 2014. I enjoyed this enormously; it was dense and difficult but...

Volume three of the above. They are now all in Athens, although only briefly as the Germans invade toward the end, and they flee on a...

Volume two of the above. Rumania rather passively allows itself to be occupied by the Germans because there is no political will there,...

Not entirely sure whether volume one of 'The Balkan Trilogy' counts as a book, but volume two (no.193 below) certainly re-introduces the...

Bought four books in Waterstones with a token Dan gave me for Xmas. I had never heard of this or the author who turns out to be the wife...

I have read a trilogy, I think called 'Berlin Noir' before, without really enjoying it. l am not sure that I enjoyed this a lot either-...

Great, big book - post Vietnam meets Raymond Chandler (the end is very Chandler-esque - serious wealth and serious corruption). Small...