Author Polly Clark reveals how she found solace and inspiration in the little-known story of W.H. Auden in Helensburgh.
Peter Godfrey-Smith, the author of our eye-opening Non-Fiction Book of the Month, Other Minds, takes us on an exclusive diver's tour of the deep.
We round up the books you should have on your radar this March.
Our Children's Book of the Month for November is the spellbinding children’s classic, The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo. Set in twentieth century Wales, the tale is as much a love letter to the Welsh countryside as it is to Welsh mythology. It tells the story of a young boy, Gwyn, who receives five mysterious birthday gifts that reveal to him his latent magical powers; on realising he can enter another, mystical realm he goes in search of his missing sister, Bethan. A touching and heart-warming tale, it is the perfect wintry children’s read. In the thirty years since the book’s publication, The Snow Spider has been a perennial children’s favourite. Jenny Nimmo reflects on the continuing popularity of the book, written some thirty years ago whilest living with her family in remotest Wales.
Our Rediscovered Classic for November, The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, is an extraordinary and vital collection of stories. While her feminist contemporaries reviled fairy-tales for reinforcing gender stereotypes, Carter chose instead to twist, re-style and transform them. She irreverently boiled down ancient, ridged archetypes and modelled in their place a dark, new, wholly original world of wonder and delight; in creating this world, filled with pitch-black humour, dazzling intelligence and just a touch of anarchy, she changed the fairy-tale forever. Waterstones Online’s Martha Greengrass has written the following introduction to The Bloody Chamber.
It has been immensely satisfying over the months to watch Francis Spufford’s first excursion into fiction Golden Hill hoover up the literary prizes. We saw its potential back in the autumn and crowned it our Fiction Book of the Month for October, and since this rollicking tale of a nascent Manhattan has gone on to nail both the Costa First Novel Award and the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the latter fittingly awarded to works that particularly evoke the spirit of a place. Now winner of the prestigious Desmond Elliott Prize 2017, Francis Spufford – both in words and his own video, shot on the city’s streets – takes us to the very heart of New York.
Our Fiction Book of the Month for August is Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Olive Kitteridge. In an interview with the Guardian, Strout said she has begun all five of her novels 'always, always' with a person, adding, 'I’m just interested in character.' Here, she tells the story of how she created the character of Olive Kitteridge which in turn led her to create the award-winning novel
Michael Frayn's skewering of the press remains as relevant as ever.
Winslow's complex epic The Cartel has been described as the ‘War and Peace of dope-war books’.
The Girl of Ink & Stars is the much-anticipated choice for our Children’s Book of the Month. That rare thing – a genuinely timeless, heart-on-its-sleeve adventure – this fictional debut from Oxford-based Kiran Millwood-Hargrave is as beautifully produced as it is written.
For some years, Cathy Rentzenbrink was a fellow soldier-in-arms at Waterstones, beginning her career as a bookseller across several of our stores in London. Ultimately she fled the nest to become Project Director to the charity Quick Reads and now, as a full-time writer and books journalist, a familiar voice in British publishing. Regional buyer Martha Greengrass introduces Cathy’s heartbreakingly honest memoir, The Last Act of Love.
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