The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole
£20.00Lyrical celebration of Britain’s temperate rainforests which once covered ⅕ of the islands but are now surviving only along the wet west coasts.
The Magic of the Ballet: Seven Classic Stories – Vivian French
£16.99Illustrated by Lauren O’Hara.
The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Coppelia and other favourites retold and illustrated with style in this enticing new collection.
Age guide: 6-9
The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
£25.00From the sparse hard facts of the life of Lucrezia de’ Medici, daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany – married at fifteen, dead within a year amidst rumours of poison – O’Farrell weaves a narrative of intrigue, passion, paranoia, and beauty.
The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell
£9.99From the sparse hard facts of the life of Lucrezia de’ Medici, daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany – married at fifteen, dead within a year, rumours of poison – O’Farrell weaves a tale of intrigue, passion, paranoia and beauty.
The Ministry of Unladylike Activity – Robin Stevens
£12.99
The Museum of Ordinary People – Mike Gayle
£8.99
The New Life – Tom Crewe
£16.99The New Life is a lyrical debut novel which balances big questions with small and powerful intimacies. Re-imagining a moment in Victorian history, it tracks the stories of two men, the middle-aged John Addington and the younger Henry Ellis, who embark on a project to write a book on the subject of ‘sexual inversion’ – male homosexual love, sexuality, and relationships. Both are married to women, but neither man’s marriage is conventional. John is pursuing a sexually-charged affair with a younger man from a socially-inferior background which his wife is helpless to prevent, while Henry and Edith’s marriage of two minds – intended as a demonstration of how the relationship between men and women might be redefined in The New Life for which they are both striving – comes under strain with the unanticipated intrusion of a third party. Against these human dramas the two men pursue their project, driven by principles and personal desires – but unbeknownst to them the ‘love that dare not speak its name’ is about to be forced out of the shadows and into the harsh, judgmental light of Victorian morality, public opinion, and the press.
Crewe writes with elegance and sympathy. This is a book that, first and foremost, is about people: their thoughts, their dreams, their desires. It is highly charged with sexual energy – the almost unbearable weight and pressure and desire deprived of an outlet: ‘lust as a winter coat worn in summer, never to be taken off’. The world of Victorian London through which his characters move is intensely atmospheric – a swirl of cold rooms, oppressive dark wooden furniture, carriages, labourers, meeting-house crowds, letters flying back and forth – but it is a light sketch to be filled in by the mind of the reader, unencumbered by lengthy descriptions. His observations on the dynamics of couples are subtle and enjoyable. John Addison and Henry Ellis confine the scope of their book to the subject of male inversion, but is often Crewe’s female characters which are the most captivating: the bold Angelica who inserts herself into Henry and Edith’s married life, John spirited teenage daughter, and his quietly suffering wife Catherine, trapped and constrained by her husband’s behaviour and by society’s intolerance.
Crewe – an editor at the LRB who has a PhD in 19th century history from Cambridge – describes himself in the afterword as merrily reshaping and rewriting the facts of the people and events which inspired the book with ‘the enthusiasm of the ex-historian’. In doing so he has created a sharp and sympathetic novel. His extensive suggestions for further reading will no doubt inspire a great many readers to dive deeper into this fascinating period and topic for themselves.
Review by Thomas Laskowski
The New Wife – JP Delaney
£14.00Free shipping within the UK.
The Night Ship – Jess Kidd
£9.99In 1628, a young girl embarks on a voyage on the Batavia, uncovering secrets and tensions both above and below deck. In 1989, Gil is fascinated by stories of nearby reefs and wrecks. A gripping drama which depicts the lives of two children bound together in a tale of brutal providence and friendship.
The Path of Peace: Walking the Western Front Way – Anthony Seldon
£20.00A 35-day modern pilgrimage along the Via Sacra in which the author interweaves his personal story with a meditation on World War I and the healing power of walking.
The Perfect Golden Circle – Benjamin Myers
£8.99Traumatised war veteran Culvert and affable, chaotic Redbone set out in a battered camper van to create a pefect crop circle in the fields of Wiltshire. A magnetic tale of two outsiders in need of healing whose friendship takes root against the cathartic background of the countryside.
The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club – Christopher de Hamel
£40.00Richly illustrated and meticulously researched recreation of the lives of men and women who commissioned, collected, created and preserved illuminated medeival manuscripts.
The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them – Peter Wohlleben (Signed)
£18.99Signed by the author.
In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests.
As human-caused climate change devastates the planet, forests play a critical role in keeping it habitable. While politicians and business leaders would have us believe that cutting down forests can be offset by mass tree planting, Wohlleben offers a warning: many tree planting campaigns lead to ecological disaster. Not only are these trees more susceptible to disease, flooding, fires, and landslides, we need to understand that forests are more than simply a collection of trees.
Instead, they are ecosystems that consist of thousands of species, from animals to fungi and bacteria. The way to save trees, and ourselves? Step aside and let forests-which are naturally better equipped to face environmental challenges-heal themselves. With the warmth and wonder familiar to readers from his previous books, Wohlleben also shares emerging scientific research about how forests shape climates both locally and across continents; that trees adapt to changing environmental conditions through passing knowledge down to their offspring; and how old growth may in fact have the most survival strategies for climate change.
The Queen of Dirt Island – Donal Ryan
£9.99Beginning in 1980s Tipperary, the story of the Aylward family told through four generations of women united by drama, tragedy, and the ongoing transgressions of their menfolk. A compassionate portrait of the power of blood ties.
The Red Red Dragon – Lynne Reid Banks
£12.99Illustrated by Kristina Kister
Quirky, clever tale about a family of dragons in a world where humans – or uprights – have always been a myth…until now!
Age guide: 9+
The Romantic – William Boyd
£20.00Panoramic portrait of the fictional Irishman Cashel Greville Ross, born in 1799 and by turns soldier, writer, and explorer, irresistibly drawn to adventure and romance in exotic locations. Absorbing and wonderfully entertaining.