Click here to read my review in The Spectator of Graham Swift’s – spoiler alert – pleasant but rather dull new novel.
Graham Swift: Here We Are
László Krasznahorkai: Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming
Click here to read my review in The Spectator of the longest, trickiest novel I read last year.
Jenny Offill: Weather
Click here to read my review in The Times of Jenny Offill’s new novel Weather. Her previous novel Dept. of Speculation was one of my favourites of its year—will Weather stack up?
Eimear McBride: Strange Hotel
Click here to read my review in The Times of Eimear McBride’s new novel Strange Hotel, which I rather liked, despite the pay-off line where I call it “the most interesting boring book of the year.”
Brexit and the British Novel
Click here to read my feature for the Penguin Books website on Brexit and how it has shaped British novels in recent years.
Marina Kemp: Nightingale
Click here to read my review in The Times of Marina Kemp’s bold, lively and – frankly – fun debut novel.
Georges Simenon and Maigret
I wrote about Georges Simenon and the Maigret books for the Penguin Books website. Simenon’s productivity was legendary: he wrote most of his novels in 10 or 11 days, and it’s reported that Alfred Hitchcock once rang him only to be told that Simenon was incommunicado, writing a new book. “That’s all right,” replied Hitchcock. “I’ll wait.”
