A menacing story of a family whose worst sins come back to bite them
Sadie Jones is winning high praise for her novel, The Snakes, which she’ll be talking about at The Literary and Scientific Institute on Thursday 7 November as part of BridLit. She [...]
Epic Continent: Adventures in the Great Story of Europe
I’ve long been fascinated by epic poems like The Iliad and The Odyssey, Such wonderful tales passed down from generation to generation for hundreds and thousands of years, to the point [...]
How Boris Johnson’s classical heroes have influenced the man he’s become
Historian Tom Holland’s interview on the Today programme made for interesting listening. Is our Prime Minister really moulding himself on Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman empire? And the populist [...]
David Nicholls: the thinking person’s go-to summer read
I’m sitting here in my writers’ shed, gazing out from the window when I should be filling the blank page on my laptop with sparkling prose. Instead, I pick up the [...]
‘Exhilarating, disquieting and deeply affecting’
There was excitement within the BridLit team when this year’s Booker longlist was announced. There among the contenders was the brilliant Max Porter, whose book, Lanny, is a worthy follow up [...]
Exploring the Spirit of Place
Why is that some locations have a special place in our hearts? Is it the landscape, the people, the personal connection or the way some places can literally ground you to [...]
Celia Brayfield’s Rebel Writers
It wasn’t just angry young men who changed Britain. What about the women? In Rebel Writers, Celia Brayfield takes a long, hard look at seven ‘accidental feminists’: Shelagh Delaney (A Taste [...]
The heartbreaking, beautifully written story of refugees
An advert for The Beekeeper of Aleppo pops up on my social media almost every day. I usually ignore these blatant attempts to get me to buy something based on my [...]
Take part in the Big Butterfly Count
Did you know that this week is the last week in which to take part in the Big Butterfly Count? Celebrating its 10th birthday this year, it’s the world’s largest butterfly [...]