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The Emotional Craft of Fiction by literary agent Donald Maas is an excellent book for any writers trying to ensure that their novels have emotional depth and will resonant with their readers at a cellular level. Each section is clearly

I came across Christian Lewis at the Hay Festival last year, when I went to see Raynor Winn speak about her new walking book Landlines and he was on the same panel, speaking about his transformational walking journey around the

I heard about Toxic: Women, Fame and the Noughties by Sarah Ditum before it came out and I listened to it earlier this year on audiobook, as a woman who came of age in the nineties, a very long time

I am a big fan of Zoe Science and Nutrition and the Zoe podcast, so in January bought Food for Life: Your Guide to the New Science of Eating Well by Tim Spector, one of Zoe’s co-founders. The book starts

I haven’t read for months and to get going again I treated myself in December to The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, the latest in the Cormoran Strike detective fiction series (see my previous blogs on the rest of the

2023 was a strange year for me, in that I read far less than I ever have before, due to work, using all my spare time to write, and then due to two months at the end of the year of dealing with a bad accident in the family. It means I have half the usual number of books to choose from but also two new categories, best audiobook and best newly discovered author.

I am always on the lookout for books that make work better and so was eager to read Supercharged Teams: The 30 Tools of Great Teamwork by Pam Hamilton. Its premise is that in a working world that is faster,

On a rainy July day I decided I need something escapist and that it was time to read the final instalment in the seven sisters series by Lucinda Riley – The Story of Pa Salt, written by her son Harry

Watching Davina McCall’s two documentaries about the menopause in 2021 and 2022 was game-changing for me, as it was for so many others, and I followed it up with reading Confessions of a Menopausal Woman by Andrea McLean and Davina’s

It’s a while since I read a novel that so throughly captivated me in the way that Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers did. It is the story of Jean Swinney, a 39 year old newspaper reporter on a local Kent

I recently went to a talk about the history behind Operation Moonlight by its author Louise Morrish in Portsmouth and bought a copy. It’s a debut novel focused on a female British agent in the Second World War working in the

I was looking forward to reading Bournville by Jonathan Coe, having so enjoyed Middle England and Mr Wilder and Me, and it absolutely didn’t disappoint. As the title suggests it is set in Bournville in Birmingham, which has the Cadburys chocolate

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller was recommended to me by a friend as a well-written love triangle that I would enjoy, so I read it on holiday by the pool in April, absolutely captivated by the setting and

As I have blogged about many times, I love crime fiction but had never read Ann Cleeves or watched her Vera series on TV. I therefore thought I’d give her a try on audiobook over Christmas. I started at the

I can’t remember how I heard about These Are Not Gentle People by Andrew Harding but having long been interested in the history of South Africa and apartheid I put it on my reading list. This non-fiction book is about

I am a big fan of Gretchen Rubin (see my blogs on Better Then Before, Happier at Home And The Happiness Project) so I pre-ordered her new book Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of

I listened to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce in March and it was such a joy, such an uplifting story and so beautifully read by Jim Broadbent, who plays Harold in the new film. I love

I listened to Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout as an audiobook in January, having had it recommended to me. It is an unusual piece of fiction, a collection of short stories that all hang around Olive as the main character,

I hugely enjoyed reading Michelle Obama’s first book (see my blog on Becoming) and was eagerly anticipating her latest, The Light We Carry, and it didn’t disappoint. It explores strategies for staying hopeful in an uncertain and demanding world, and

I was given Landlines by Raynor Winn for Christmas and read it in mid-February, glad to be swept away on a long-distance walk into wild weather and the peace of nature. This is the follow-up to Winn’s previous books The

When the end of January comes a celebration is in order and what better way to celebrate than reading The Last Remains, the new book in the Ruth Galloway series by the fabulous Elly Griffiths, as soon as it is