Cecilia Cornaro got a taste for being “loved properly” when she was lured from her bath to fall into the arms of the famed seducer Cassanova. Just thirteen, she was a child of Venice, a city which at that time – the late eighteenth century – spent six
Benedict Kiely, one of Ireland’s best-known broadcasters, storytellers and short story writers published The Captain with the Whiskers in 1960. Reissued now by Methuen, set at a specific era in Ireland’s recent history but is a story
DI Tom Thorne is tracking a vicious contract killer. X marks the spot and each of the victims so far have the X cut deeply into their backs. Ex-DCI Carol Chamberlain has problems of her own. A case has come back to haunt her, a case where a young schoolgirl
Leningrad 1941, Hitler has just declared war on Russia, the hard lives of the impoverished Metanov family are about to become impossible. Tatiana is 16 years old; she and her family live in two rooms in a communal apartment in Leningrad. She works in a factory
Grisham’s latest novel, The Broker, is set outside the USA. It’s only the second time Grisham has gone down this route, the first being The Testament published in 1999, which takes place in Brazil and is deemed by many to be one of Grisham’s best.
When E. Annie Proulx describes Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist as “both rough-mannered, rough-spoken, inured to the stoic life”, we’re not quite expecting what comes next. These weather-beaten men of the land meet one summer guarding sheep
As a repeat visitor to Las Vegas and something of a gambler at heart, I want to believe that it is possible to beat the house. So, when asked if I would like to borrow this book, I jumped at the chance. I think many of us would admit that there is nothing quite
There was plenty of hype about Monica Ali’s debut novel ever before it got published. Ali was nominated amongst the Granta Best of Young British Novelists last year and was shortlisted (as favourite) for the 2003 Booker Prize. After reading Brick Lane, it’s
The femmes universally slammed Anne Tyler’s Back When We Were Grown-ups when we read it back in 2004; in fact it was the book that gave rise to the famous “itchy tights” quote from our Connoisseur. The biggest problem we had with it was annoyance
What makes anyone want to box, and why would a woman want to get into the ring? The reasons according to Kate Sekules – journalist, travel writer, food critic and boxer – are similar but varied. Sekules’ adolescence was where she discovered
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