Which Books Should You Be Buying This Week?

Your round-up of the newspaper book reviews March 10/11

The topic of nepotism has been filling newspaper column inches this week, what with the news that Boris Johnson wishes to give his father, Stanley Johnson, a knighthood in his resignation honours. Of course, the ‘lads’ have been overlooked for some meatier bait in the form of Fiona Bruce, and I wrote a little piece about that here for anyone who is interested to read more.

But, continuing on the theme of nepotism, let’s start with a book authored by a friend of mine which has featured the newspaper review sections this weekend.

THE WINDSORS AT WAR was reviewed by both The Times and The Sunday Times this weekend, the former suggesting Prince Harry might like to add this to his TBR pile:

‘A dashing prince with a respectable war record squandered public support by marrying an American divorcée, moving abroad and sponging off dodge acquaintances. He was obsessed with titles, more than a little pleased with himself and flirted with dangerous causes, but thought he could bypass the British establishment by using the US media. The more he moaned, the worse became his lot,’ commences the review of THE WINDSORS AT WAR in The Times which declared that ‘comedy and bitchiness bring colour to the black-and-white photographs’ within. Ah, that sounds like my pal, Alexander.

This book is the sequel to his THE CROWN IN CRISIS which focused its attention on Edward VIII’s abdication and the immediate aftermath, this books takes a closer look at the fraternal dual which seems… apt, currently.

Larman writes: “If there is a public figure of comparible standing who displayed the lack of self-awareness, non-existent consideration for others and disdain for any reasonable standard of behaviour as the Duke of Windsor, their name should live in infamy.”

Oh dear, not a fan then?

‘Larman sharply contrasts the grim reality the world was facing with the solipsistic petulance of the duke and duchess,’ writes Simon Callow reviewing for The Sunday Times. ‘…Fortunately, THE WINDSORS AT WAR is about a great deal more than them. If it has a hero it is the shy, complex man who nerve had the slightest desire to be kind and made extraordinary efforts to rise to the job, finally earning the unqualified admiration of world leaders… what makes it fresh is Larman’s use of recently disembargoed diaries and letters of the king’s private secretary.‘

There are plenty of colourful sub-plot characters that give this book the entertainment value, there is even an ‘Agatha Christie-like episode’ featuring a murder which Callow writes ‘every detail of it seems to have been penned by the Queen of Crime herself.’

‘In the three years since THE CROWN IN CRISIS appeared, everything has changed: the war in Ukraine; the end of the second Elizabethan age; the defection of the Sussexes, with its uncanny parallels to Edward and Wallis… Will the House of Windsor continue to be central to the nation’s story, Larman asks at the end of the book…’ writes Callow at the tail end of his review.

I guess we shall wait and see.

You can buy THE WINDSORS AT WAR here, and also keep your eyes and ears peeled for news of an upcoming event with Alexander and I soon – will let you know the details when I have them!

As a child, I had terrifying recurring nightmares about wolves, and Erica Berry, the author of this next fascinating book has set out to explore our relationship with them by way intertwining their lives and ours.

‘WOLFISH is organised around two journeys,’ writes Kathryn Hughes reviewing for The Sunday Times. ‘The first is made by OR-7, an electronically tagged grey wolf who, in 2011, left his native pack in Oregon and set out on a classic coming-of-age journey to find territory and a mate to call his own. He made it all the way to California before heading back over the state border to west Oregon, only to settle down with the wolf next door, a female who had set out from the same starting point…The second journey in the book is that taken by Berry, who, like OR-7, is a '“disperser”, a human animal leaving her family or origin in Oregon to set out for college and graduate school on the other side of the country. Like Red Riding Hood, she encounters wolves along the way…’

Although these wolves are in the shape of creepy men and frat boys who hang out in a pack.

Hughes says that those who loved Helen Macdonald’s H IS FOR HAWK will love WOLFISH insisting it has ‘the same intellectual range’ and poetic prose style.

This is how I like my wolves, tucked safely between the pages of a book although it turns out the number of humans killed by wolves in America and Europe over the last 18 years is two.

‘You are more likely to lose your life to a mosquito,’ Hughes points out.

Ok, I’ll give it a read and try not to have nightmares.

You can buy WOLFISH here.

There were several treasures in The Observer’s New Review pages this weekend, one being their Poetry Book of the Month, a slim little 64-page volume of poems by Carole Satyamurti which packs such a punch, even in the review.

The collection, THE HOPEFUL HAT, has been published after her death which was in August 2019. In what Kate Kellaway reviewing describes as a ‘moving’ introduction, Satyamurti’s daughter explains that her mother was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2012 ‘which led to the removal of her voice box and part of her tongue – a cruel theft from a poet... looking back, it seems a further irony that Satyamurti should have first come to public attention as the winner of the National Poetry competition in 1986 with Between the Lines, a poem concerning words, euphemisms and silences.’

Having spent the latter part of last year writing a book about death with Wendy Mitchell (I’m hoping to share the cover with you and open pre-orders soon), I was drawn to this review.

‘She anticipates the end of life with exemplary fortitude,’ writes Kellaway. ‘This involves thinking about order and chaos, about tidying up and away… In Obituary, she wonders how to administer a vanished life:

What does one do with past selves -

lock them in; embroider them; forget

them;

draw lessons? Or acknowledge them,

like books that formed one once

but won’t be read again?

I guess, we shall all be books one day.

Kellaway insists that these poems are ‘moving but never depressing.’ The thesis of my third and final book with Wendy is that we need to talk about death more, and Satyamunri’s own final book sounds like a gentle place to start.

You can buy THE HOPEFUL HAT here.

I’m just going to pause here to tell you that The Book Room is actually going to be part of a poetry evening this coming Wednesday (March 15th). Writer, producer and poet Henry Normal has a new collection THE FIRE HILLS out and the Tunbridge Wells Poetry Festival has organised a free event, reading, book launch and signing – at which I shall be selling his books. If you are not a poetry fan, you may be more familiar with Henry’s work as co-creator and co-writer of The Royle Family, and his production company Baby Cow Productions was responsible for shows such as Gavin and Stacey, Red Dwarf, The Mighty Boosh, and Alan Partridge to name just a few.

You can find out more about Wednesday’s event here and buy THE FIRE HILLS here.

Back to the newspapers now, another treasure in both The Telegraph and The Observer’s pages was FURIES: STORIES OF THE WICKED, WILD AND UNTAMED. Virago has been raising female voices for 50 years (I will never forget the moment my agent rang and said the magic words: “Virago are reading and loving your novel”), and this is their birthday anthology featuring new stories from greats such as Ali Smith, Emma Donoghue, Margaret Atwood and Kamila Shamsie, among others.

‘Most of the titles – rather vintage-seeming gendered insults – have a degree of ambiguity baked in, perhaps even a lurking admiration for the distinctive, unpredictable woman,’ writes Bidisha Mamata reviewing. ‘Who wouldn’t be somewhat flattered to be called a Warrior, a Fury, A Dragon or even a She-Devil? Other stories take on the Wench, Hussy and Tygress – the latter in a lovely piece by Claire Kohda, whose narrator’s beloved mother is a tiger who would “always give me a long kiss on the forehead… and her whiskers would tickle my eyelids.”’

I cannot wait to get my hands on this collection, and Mamata clearly loved it: ‘Given writers of such calibre, it’s no surprise FURIES is a slick collection of clever, fun tales, with something for bluestockings and banshees alike.’

If you are a Telegraph subscriber you can read Ali Smith’s story Spitfire, from the collection here.

If you’re wondering what to get your mum for Mother’s Day this weekend – or to stick on your own wishlist – this would make the perfect gift, and you can buy FURIES here.

Oh and I haven’t really got space to include as much of these selections as I’d like, but do check out this piece in The Observer if you haven’t already: ‘Eighty-nine perfect minutes’: 30 of the Best Short Films and Novels. The Book Room bestseller SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE gets a mention:

‘Keegan’s fourth book and first novel, SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE is her longest yet. It also happens to be the shortest work ever to be nominated for the Booker prize. Set in small-town Ireland in 1985, it alludes to the Magdalene Laundries scandal, dramatising the inner turmoil that is sparked in coal and timber merchant Bill Furlong by a troubling encounter with a pupil at what is purportedly a girls’ “training school”. As his mind roams back to his own compromised start in life, Keegan’s spare, luminous sentences slice through themes of complicity and courage. A classic in the making.’

If you haven’t read it yet, you really must. I am now going to be working my way through the other 29 books and films mentioned. You can custom order any of the books mentioned in that piece here and you can buy SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE here.

Let’s end with some more non-fiction, Katherine May’s WINTERING was a Sunday Times Bestseller, and fact-fans might be interested to know that Rebecca Lee who narrated the audio version of that book, also narrated my novel, THE IMPOSTER. Bit of trivia for you there. But the reason I mention it is because Katherine May has a new book, ENCHANTMENT out which The Independent only had good things to say about:

‘WINTERING helped to explain why we all want to go to ground when the days get dark and the weather gets cold,’ writes Jessie Thompson reviewing. ‘[Katherine May’s] latest, in which she pursues a sense of wonder, could be regarded as its life-affirming sequel, encouraging you to slow down, look around and savour each day.’

We all need reminding of that, and with Spring in the air, now is as good a time as ever to watch that blossom explode over the coming weeks.

You can buy ENCHANTMENT here.

So there you go, these are the books the newspapers are talking about this week. So now all you need to decide is, which ones will you be buying?

• Thank you to all who have been ordering from my online bookshop in the last week. Remember you can still support THE BOOK ROOM while I am waiting to open my physical store again by shopping online, in fact now I would appreciate the support more than ever. I can order ANY BOOK for you and you will receive it within 48 hours. It has never been a more important time to support both writers and independents bookshops, and by buying from me, you are doing both and contributing to a vital ecosystem. If there aren’t any books you’d like to buy this week, please consider sharing this post instead so I can build subscribers. Thank you so much.