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I read The Correspondent by Virginia Evan’s after seeing it everywhere this August and absolutely loved it. It’s a beautifully written, clever book that stayed with me. Shockingly, given how good it is, it is also the author’s debut. There’s

My Mum gave me The Librarian of Amsterdam by Uri Dushy for my 50th birthday, knowing my love of World War Two fiction, and it didn’t disappoint. It is inspired by true events and tells the story of Sophie, who

I read The Women by Kristin Hannah (see my blog on one of her other bestsellers The Nightingale) in July, having long been fascinated by the history of Vietnam (see my blogs on Reading Vietnam and A Hundred Suns) and

I read Hooked by Asako Yuzuki in one of this summer’s many heatwaves and devoured it mostly in a single day. It is just as good as Butter by the same author and continued my vein of reading quirky Japanese

I read Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively on a reading retreat weekend in a shepherd’s hut on the beach in June, having brought it as a recommended great short novel back in December. It won the Booker Prize in the

I read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke in June, keen to get my own take on the book that everyone is talking about this summer. This is such a clever concept – taking the Trad Wife influencer and transporting her

I read Fires Which Burned Brightly by Sebastian Faulks, one of my favourite authors (see my blogs on Snow Country, Paris Echo, Where My Heart Used to Beat and A Possible Life) in the heatwave in the shade by the beach at the end

I read Return to Sri Lanka: Travels in a Paradoxical Island by Razeen Sally in June, in the hope of doing so myself next year and keen to get myself back in the mood of the island, its people and

I was recommended The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists by Richard Rumelt, in advance of embarking on a strategy exercise, given the ‘Strategy Foundry’ methodology set out in the book. The core the premise is that strategy should not start

I really enjoyed reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin last year, so was looking forward to reading one of her other books The Storied Life of AJ Fikrey and it didn’t disappoint. I was immediately drawn to

Just before a trip to Northern Ireland in May I read the only Sally Rooney book I hadn’t read to date (see my blogs on Intermezzo, Beautiful World Where Are You? and Normal People), her debut, Conversations with Friends. This is the

I read Broken Light by one of my favourite authors Joanne Harris earlier this year (see my blogs on Vianne, A Narrow Door, Peaches and chocolate and The Strawberry Thief) and was always going to enjoy a book about a

I read Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 by David Kynaston over Christmas, in preparation for writing a novel set in the period. It was a fascinating read on how Britain coped in the aftermath of the Second World War. The book details

I listened to The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan a few months ago, having very much enjoyed his Malabar House series (see my blogs on City of Destruction, Midnight at Malabar House, Dying Day, The Lost Man of Bombay

I read A Family Affair by Claire Lynch in May and was shocked to discover a piece of history I knew nothing about – the removal of children from lesbian mothers in custody cases as recently as the 1990s –

I listened to the audiobook of Homecoming by one of my favourite authors Kate Morton (see my blogs on Kate Morton, The Clockmaker’s Daughter and The Lake House) in April and was utterly captivated with it from start to finish.

I started reading Kala by Colin Walsh on the flight to Northern Ireland on holiday and was gripped from page one. It is the story of four friends, one of whom, Kala, goes missing when they are teenagers. We pick

I confess that I read This House of Grief by Helen Garner because Carrie Bradshaw in And Just Like That was reading it, and if it was good enough for Carrie, it was good enough for me. It’s all the

I was recommended Kind: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work by Graham Alcott by a wise mentor and read it over New Year and was glad to see how well it chimed with our approach at Foundations of using

I read Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson over Christmas and was captivated by its spare and lyrically-beautiful writing and the way it deals so sensitively with some very difficult issues. The protagonist is a young black man living in

I read The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright by Beth Miller in April, and really enjoyed it. It tells the story of 51-year-old Kay Bright, who has had enough of her marriage of three decades to workaholic Richard, who runs