Author: Beth Smith

On the 5th of March, just in time for international women’s month, the Women’s Prize for Fiction announced it eagerly anticipated longlist. The list consists of 16 books from all corners of the world, they all are written in English. The list is made up of well known as well as new authors, seven of these are debut novels. It also contains last years Booker prize winner, a previous winner and a non-binary transgender author for the first time in the prizes 24 year history (with permission from the author). The judges who picked these books included Professor Kate Williams,…

If you’ll be contemplating dying alone this Valentines Day like myself and food editor, Paige, here are some books to help deal with this. After all, Shakespeare himself invented the term lonely. ‘The Lonely City’ by Olivia Laing When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving fluidly between works and lives — from Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks to Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules, from Henry Darger’s hoarding to the depredations…

Bangor University’s aspiring authors are wanted for their book submissions. Salad Pages launched in August this year to help authors, within the age range of 22 and under, who may find it difficult to have a book accepted by a publisher due to lack of experience. The publishing house is now calling for manuscripts from Bangor University students. Salad Pages is the child of husband and wife duo Matt and Claire Napoli, who have a desire to make the process of publishing a book a positive experience. Claire has worked in publishing for more than a decade, and Matt is the Commercial Director…

Political book sales have exploded this year, according to Britain’s largest bookseller, Waterstones. The company attributed the growth to writers and readers “urgently seeking to understand this scary new world”. The UK bookshop chain has sold more politics books this year than in the whole of 2015 or 2016, with year-to-date politics sales up by more than 50%. Across the UK, sales of politics books have already surpassed 2017’s final figure of 1.35m, with 1.41m books sold this year so far, according to Nielsen BookScan. Much of the increase is attributed to the runaway sales of Michael Wolff’s Trump exposé,…

Black and British: A Forgotten History- David Olusoga “The denial and avowal of black British history, even in the face of mounting documentary and archaeological evidence, is not just a consequence of racism but a feature of racism.” David Olusoga is an award-winning historian and broadcaster. In this book, he explores the long relationship between the British Isles and Africa and its people. He draws on new genetic and genealogical research, original records and more. The book itself starts in the Roman times ranging from the lives of black Tudors, Georgians, Victorians and soldiers within both World Wars. The book…

Agatha Christie was born on September 15th, 1890, in Torquay, Devon. She was the youngest of three siblings and was educated at home by her mother, who encouraged her daughter to write. As a child, Christie enjoyed fantasy play and creating characters. When she was 16, she moved to Paris for a time to study vocals and piano. She published her first book titled ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ in 1920; the story focused on the murder of a rich heiress and introduced readers to one of Christie’s most famous characters, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Writing well into her later…

The final adventure for Paddington Bear, which involves the marmalade fanatic visiting St Paul’s Cathedral, will be published in June 2018 a year after the death of his creator, Michael Bond, at the age of 91. “He was working on it very shortly before he died,” said Bond’s daughter, Karen Jankel. “It hadn’t been illustrated, but it was there in manuscript form, and it’s lovely … He kept that magic touch right until the end. He always had to be writing, it was always his way, right through his life.” In his latest adventure, the wild bear sets off for…

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland, on November 29th 1898. He was very close to his brother, Warren, and the two created the imaginary land of Boxen together. Lewis graduated from Oxford University with a focus on literature and classic philosophy. When he took up a teaching position at Magdalen College, within the university, he also joined a group known as The Inklings. This was an informal collective…

“We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of do’s and don’t’s: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but once upon a time lasts forever.” Philip Pullman is known as one of the world’s most influential storytellers. He was born on the 19th October, 1946 in Norfolk. He was educated in England, Zimbabwe and Australia before his family settled down in North Wales. After securing his Bachelors in Arts at Exeter College, Oxford, he began teaching. He taught middle school children and at the same time, he began to pursue his writing,…

“Mom says where did anxiety come from? Anxiety is the cousin visiting from out of town depression felt obliged to bring to the party. Mom, I am the party. Only, I am a party I don’t want to be at.” Exploring themes of mental health, love and family; Sabrina Benaim’s debut book certainly packs a punch. I knew of Sabrina Benaim long before this book came to light. She is a very well known performance poet and one of the most-viewed of all time, so no pressure for her to release a brilliant book, right? There is an extreme sense…