A WEEK AT THE AIRPORT by ALAIN DE BOTTON
At the behest of Mike Brown (Heathrow's Chief Operating Officer) De Botton finds himself at a desk opposite check in post D16, watching the comings and goings and with carte blanche to visit every aspect of the airport. Accompanied by excellent photographs from Richard Baker De Botton soon learns that an airport actually is a good place to write, you see people want to tell you their storiesm but it is so much more than why people are flying off to Geneva or coming back from a year in Tokyo. This is actually a calming book, one with a meditative slant where De Botton is the stationary centre in this place that is a non stop whirl of activity. full story...
THE ANNIVERSARY MAN by R.J. ELLORY
Nobody writes intelligent crime fiction as well as R.J. Ellory and he is on superb form in his latest gripping crime novel The Anniversary Man. On the surface its another tale of a copycat serial killer striking fear into the hearts of the citizens of New York but it is much more than that with its study of loneliness and the effects it can have on a troubled individual. full story...
FAREWELL TO LANCASHIRE by ANNA JACOBS
Jacobs writes sagas in the classic Cookson/Josephine Cox mould and FTL, which is set in the 1860's, Cassandra Blake is feeling trapped having been responsible for bringing up her three sisters almost single handed. Her father means well but is completely impractical when it comes to a household of young women. There is hope on the horizon though, Cassandra is in love with Reece Gregory and hopes for marriage, however everything changes with a double pronged blow, not only does Reece move to Western Australia on the promise of a new life and career but an old family fued leads to serious trouble for Cassandra and her three sisters (who find themselves sailing, against their will, on a cotton ship also bound for Australia). full story...
SYREN by ANGIE SAGE
The story of Septimus begins in the wonderful first book Magyck and continued in Queste, Flyte and Physik. Now in Syren Septimus and his friends are on a dangerous island whilst his badly injured dragon Spit Fyre recuperates. It seems the islands inhabitants have a sinister reason for wanting rid of Septemis and Co although Septimus himself is more concerned with fighting off a strange presence that only he can hear. full story...
ALTAR OF EDEN by JAMES ROLLINS
On to the present day and Louisana vet and neurobiologist Dr Lorna Polk is called in when a run down trawler with a cargo of very strange animals (all of them with genetic defects but heightened intelligence) Polk and her team along with US Marshall Jack Menard (with whom Lorna has a significant history having been the girlfriend of his young brother and the whole Menard family bar Jack blaming her for his tragic death) take the animals for further investigation which leads to a significant ramping up of the action when the stop at nothing owners of the animals come looking for them. full story...
SHADES OF GREY by JASPER FFORDE
In an Orwellian vision of a country far in the future people have stopped seeing colour in all its varied wonderousness and instead are reduced to being able to see just one colour (some poor people, the Greys, can't see any colour at all). There is a strict heirarchy in this strange new world where the more colour perception you have the better you'll get on. 20 year old Eddie Russett has been ordered to go with his father (a colourman - a kind of medic able to fix people up by mixing up different colour swatches!) to the outer fringes town of East Carmine - where they do things a bit differently, in order to learn a little bit of humility after it is discovered he has been thinking for himself a little too much. full story...
MICHAEL PALIN - HALFWAY TO HOLLYWOOD: DIARIES 1980-88
Palin is one of the most well known faces in the world, making his name with the legendary Monty Python's Flying Circus Comedy Troupe and onto movies and then travelling the globe for a massively popular series of BBC documentaries. By the 1980's Palin was at the height of his popularity as a comedy performer acting in movies such as Time Bandits, Brazil, The Missionary (which he also wrote) and A Private Function as well as another Python movie in the shape of The Meaning of Life. By the closing of 1988 he was embarking on a whole new chapter of his life, leaving London for his momentous trip Around the World in 80 Days. full story...
DUCHESS BY NIGHT by ELOISA JAMES
Having been left a widow following the suicide of her husband, Harriet, Duchess of Berrow, is keen to get back into society, she receives and invitation to a party thrown by the decadent Lord Strange, but rather than risk her reputation by attending as herself she hits upon the outrageous idea of going incognito - as a man! full story...
A complete list of our book reviews can be found at our archive here.
At the behest of Mike Brown (Heathrow's Chief Operating Officer) De Botton finds himself at a desk opposite check in post D16, watching the comings and goings and with carte blanche to visit every aspect of the airport. Accompanied by excellent photographs from Richard Baker De Botton soon learns that an airport actually is a good place to write, you see people want to tell you their storiesm but it is so much more than why people are flying off to Geneva or coming back from a year in Tokyo. This is actually a calming book, one with a meditative slant where De Botton is the stationary centre in this place that is a non stop whirl of activity. full story...
THE ANNIVERSARY MAN by R.J. ELLORY
Nobody writes intelligent crime fiction as well as R.J. Ellory and he is on superb form in his latest gripping crime novel The Anniversary Man. On the surface its another tale of a copycat serial killer striking fear into the hearts of the citizens of New York but it is much more than that with its study of loneliness and the effects it can have on a troubled individual. full story...
FAREWELL TO LANCASHIRE by ANNA JACOBS
Jacobs writes sagas in the classic Cookson/Josephine Cox mould and FTL, which is set in the 1860's, Cassandra Blake is feeling trapped having been responsible for bringing up her three sisters almost single handed. Her father means well but is completely impractical when it comes to a household of young women. There is hope on the horizon though, Cassandra is in love with Reece Gregory and hopes for marriage, however everything changes with a double pronged blow, not only does Reece move to Western Australia on the promise of a new life and career but an old family fued leads to serious trouble for Cassandra and her three sisters (who find themselves sailing, against their will, on a cotton ship also bound for Australia). full story...
SYREN by ANGIE SAGE
The story of Septimus begins in the wonderful first book Magyck and continued in Queste, Flyte and Physik. Now in Syren Septimus and his friends are on a dangerous island whilst his badly injured dragon Spit Fyre recuperates. It seems the islands inhabitants have a sinister reason for wanting rid of Septemis and Co although Septimus himself is more concerned with fighting off a strange presence that only he can hear. full story...
ALTAR OF EDEN by JAMES ROLLINS
On to the present day and Louisana vet and neurobiologist Dr Lorna Polk is called in when a run down trawler with a cargo of very strange animals (all of them with genetic defects but heightened intelligence) Polk and her team along with US Marshall Jack Menard (with whom Lorna has a significant history having been the girlfriend of his young brother and the whole Menard family bar Jack blaming her for his tragic death) take the animals for further investigation which leads to a significant ramping up of the action when the stop at nothing owners of the animals come looking for them. full story...
SHADES OF GREY by JASPER FFORDE
In an Orwellian vision of a country far in the future people have stopped seeing colour in all its varied wonderousness and instead are reduced to being able to see just one colour (some poor people, the Greys, can't see any colour at all). There is a strict heirarchy in this strange new world where the more colour perception you have the better you'll get on. 20 year old Eddie Russett has been ordered to go with his father (a colourman - a kind of medic able to fix people up by mixing up different colour swatches!) to the outer fringes town of East Carmine - where they do things a bit differently, in order to learn a little bit of humility after it is discovered he has been thinking for himself a little too much. full story...
MICHAEL PALIN - HALFWAY TO HOLLYWOOD: DIARIES 1980-88
Palin is one of the most well known faces in the world, making his name with the legendary Monty Python's Flying Circus Comedy Troupe and onto movies and then travelling the globe for a massively popular series of BBC documentaries. By the 1980's Palin was at the height of his popularity as a comedy performer acting in movies such as Time Bandits, Brazil, The Missionary (which he also wrote) and A Private Function as well as another Python movie in the shape of The Meaning of Life. By the closing of 1988 he was embarking on a whole new chapter of his life, leaving London for his momentous trip Around the World in 80 Days. full story...
DUCHESS BY NIGHT by ELOISA JAMES
Having been left a widow following the suicide of her husband, Harriet, Duchess of Berrow, is keen to get back into society, she receives and invitation to a party thrown by the decadent Lord Strange, but rather than risk her reputation by attending as herself she hits upon the outrageous idea of going incognito - as a man! full story...
A complete list of our book reviews can be found at our archive here.
