Very taken with W&N’ new ed. of Patricia Highsmith’s New York diaries & notebooks, though I think she’d snub the Crodino in favour of something stronger… In Feb 1944 she writes that alcohol helps one “see the truth, the simplicity, and the primitive emotions once more.”

Writing monstrous spouses is clearly Charlotte Mendelson’s forte! ‘Wife’ - the story of the implosion of a marriage - is an absolute tour de force. The prose is gorgeous, it’s hilarious, and I have NEVER hated a character like I hated Penny! Out in August from Mantle Books

RIP Lynne Reid Banks

Hands down, the best subtitle for a novel ever! New Olga Tokarczuk (trans. by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) coming in September from Fitzcarraldo Editions

Sending out hot proofs - and a few hot caps - of EX-WIFE and seduced once more by this ‘stop-you-in-your-tracks classic’ (as Monica Heisey says in her fabulous foreword!) which I can’t believe is from 1929. What a voice!! (Ft cameo from our fave ex-wife Catherine of Aragon) 💍 💔

Two very different new books, Treasures of Cornwall: A Literary Anthology (edited Luke Thompson) and A Different Sound: Stories by Mid-Century Women Writers (edited Lucy Scholes) include #DaphneDuMaurier 's short story, #TheBirds . Find out more: dumaurier.org/menu_page.php?…

Online now and in print on Saturday, my review of Andrew O’Hagan’s new novel ‘Caledonian Road’, which I wasn’t as enchanted or entertained by as much as I hoped I would be

The first great Covid novel?

With THE VULNERABLES, Nunez comes closer to this achievement than most, writes Lucy Scholes…

prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/65024/…

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In the latest, critic Lucy Scholes recommends our brand new Barbara Comyns biography: 'Comyns’s life was every bit as adventurous and unconventional as those of her various fictional heroines.'
The book is out now!

Sarah Moss says more in these three short paragraphs than most other writers would take thousands of words to untangle - a perfect short essay for ⁦Granta⁩ granta.com/generation-gap…

Happy pub day to Avril Horner, whose biography of Barbara Comyns is out today from Manchester University Press. It’s the eye-opening story of a writer whose life was every bit as adventurous & unconventional as anything she wrote about in her strange, surreal, brilliant & original novels.

A parrot.
A pandemic.
And Sigrid Nunez’s wonderfully meandering prose.

Lucy Scholes reviews THE VULNERABLES:

prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/65024/…

This little piece of perfection has just arrived from DauntBooksPublishing

A DIFFERENT SOUND, a brilliant collection of short stories by 20th century women writers, selected by Lucy Scholes.

This fabulous mix of familiar writers and new discoveries is available in paperback, perfectly timed for #MothersDay .

In case you missed our news this week…we are publishing a collection of stories by Joan Aiken - all set in a magical “other’ London - to celebrate her centenary this year. And this is what the cover looks like! You can pre-order special advance copies at manderleypress.com

This wonderful book, 'Revolutionary Acts' by Jason Okundaye, is out this week!

'This rich collection is a welcome invitation to seek out more female voices' - Thrilled to see 'A Different Sound' included on Marianka Swain's list of Mother's Day book recommendations for Telegraph Books Pushkin Press telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/…

This is what Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa had to say about Gaza (she just left):

REVOLUTIONARY ACTS is published today.

This book is a social history of Black gay men in Britain, taking an elder generations stories of love, partying, politics, gossip, fights, scandals, everything.

Available to buy now at all good bookshops! ☎️ linktr.ee/revolutionarya…

If you're defending the mass starvation of children in Gaza, then it's time to take a step back & look at your moral compass: 'Surely it is impossible for us, as normal human beings, to watch children starve to death without making an effort to save them.'
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…