TEEN & YOUNG ADULTS By Sally Morris for the Daily Mail Published: 22:01 BST, 22 April 2021 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 22 April 2021 THE OUTLAWS SCARLETT & BROWNE by Jonathan Stroud (Walker £7.99, 400 pp) THE OUTLAWS SCARLETT & BROWNE by Jonathan Stroud (Walker £7.99, 400 pp) ‘That morning, with the dawn hanging wet … Read more
WHAT BOOK would Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart take to a desert island? Douglas Stuart is currently reading Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan Author would take Maria McCann’s As Meat Loves Salt to a desert island He said Morvern Callar by Alan Warner first gave him the reading bug By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 22:03 BST, 15 April … Read more
BOOK OF THE WEEK AS WE WERE by David Hargreaves and Margaret-Louise O’Keeffe (Whitefox £100, 2,288 pp) We were two years in the making and ten minutes in the destroying,’ wrote Private Pearson of the Leeds Pals, a World War I battalion recruited from the Yorkshire city. He was referring to the horrors of July … Read more
GOTHIC FANTASY By Jamie Buxton For The Daily Mail Published: 22:03 BST, 15 April 2021 | Updated: 22:04 BST, 15 April 2021 EMPIRE OF WILD by Cherie Dimaline (W&N £14.99, 320 pp) EMPIRE OF WILD by Cherie Dimaline (W&N £14.99, 320 pp) Settle in for an utterly compelling blend of propulsive narrative, starkly beautiful writing … Read more
NATURE SHEARWATER by Roger Morgan-Grenville (Icon £16.99, 281 pp) On the island of Rum in Scotland, there is a mountain called Trollval: Old Norse for the Hill of Trolls. It’s said the name comes from the Norse seafarers who heard unearthly voices from underground, and concluded they were those of trolls. Actually the noise is … Read more
WHAT BOOK would singer-songwriter Tracey Thorn take to a desert island? Singer-songwriter Tracey Thorn is currently reading Luster by Raven Leilani She would have taken War And Peace to a desert island before Covid lockdown After only reading 10% of it in lockdown, she would take Elizabeth Taylor’s works And C S Lewis’ The Lion, The … Read more
There’s a word for it (but only in English): No other major language contains a single word that can be translated only as ‘fair’, linguist claims Capuchin monkeys proved they know the concept of fairness in an experiment In the early 2000s, they were given different treats for performing certain tasks The monkeys became mad … Read more
ANIMALS All Dogs Great And Small By Graeme Hall (Ebury £16.99, 288 pp) A dog is for life, not just for lockdown, is the new catchphrase of an elderly man with an old spaniel I often meet in the fields behind my house. He usually gives my little black Staffie a treat, while venting his … Read more
WEATHER The Secret World Of Weather By Tristan Gooley (Sceptre £20, 384 pp) Here is the local weather forecast, presented by Mother Nature: sheep are huddling together, spiders are spinning smaller webs, the scarlet pimpernel flower is beginning to close its petals and aircraft vapour trails are spreading out across the sky. After studying The … Read more
WHAT BOOK would author Maggie O’Farrell take to a desert island? Maggie O’Farrell is currently reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina for the ninth time Author would take William Boy’s Any Human Heart to a desert island Moominland Midwinter first gave her reading bug when she was eight or nine By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 22:01 BST, … Read more