The Literary Sofa
Literary Fiction
Writers on Location – Dominic Brownlow on The Fens
This week I am very excited to be hosting Dominic Brownlow and his outstanding literary debut The Naseby Horses, set in his native Fenland in eastern England. Whist his novel centres on the extremely well-travelled premise of a missing person (the teenage protagonist’s twin sister), the result is truly something else. It has various thematic … Continue reading
Guest Author – Eleanor Anstruther on Fictionalising a Family Story
My First Sofa Spotlight of 2019 celebrated nine fantastic new releases and this is the penultimate post from the authors. This is one of the strongest ‘seasons’ I’ve been fortunate to host, and it’s a pleasure to be joined today by Eleanor Anstruther, author of A Perfect Explanation. I met Ellie very briefly at her … Continue reading
Guest Author – Helen Kitson on Writing about Writers
Today the coverage of my Sofa Spotlight titles continues following my trip to Senegal and I’m delighted to welcome debut novelist and self-described ‘ex-poet’ Helen Kitson, whose novel The Last Words of Madeleine Anderson is amongst the first releases from small independent press Louise Walters Books. Louise has appeared on the Sofa with each of … Continue reading
Guest Author – Lochlan Bloom on Kickstarting Literary Publishing
Today’s post is a great follow-up to Tom Vowler on crowdfunding his collection Dazzling the Gods. I’m amazed how difficult it is to get any book published but there are certain types of fiction which face additional hurdles due to preconceptions about what readers want. This can lead to questionable assumptions and self-fulfilling prophesies. Is … Continue reading
Guest Author – Linda Grant on The Self in Fiction
Linda Grant is one of the UK’s leading literary novelists and writers of non-fiction. She has been awarded many prizes including the Orange Prize for her second novel When I Lived in Modern Times, 2000. As I’ve mentioned before, her novel The Clothes on their Backs, short-listed for the 2008 Booker Prize, was the book which … Continue reading
Summer Reads 2014
*SEE END OF POST FOR COMPETITION WINNERS* I’m very excited to unveil the Literary Sofa SUMMER READS 2014. From a field of over 50 titles considered, the twelve books I selected reflect the breadth of my taste and hopefully also yours. You’ll find crime and mystery, a memoir, comic and tragic family sagas, intriguing tales … Continue reading
2013 – My Year in Books
Although it always seems weird that people start talking about their books of the year before December has even begun – the newspapers were already at it last weekend – my excuse is that I’m reading new releases in order to compile my Hot Picks of 2014 for publication next month. Looking back on the year’s … Continue reading
Book Review – Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Kate Atkinson is one of Britain’s foremost literary novelists writing today – of this there is no doubt. Unlike many other writers of that rank, she doesn’t subject her fans to long waits between titles. Since her debut Behind the Scenes at the Museum won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year in 1995 … Continue reading
Book Review – NW by Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s fourth novel NW has taken seven years to appear. Only elite novelists can get away with a gap that long, which sounds like a creative luxury but comes with the added pressure caused by a build-up of expectation. I was looking forward to it having really enjoyed her previous novel On Beauty (2005). It turns … Continue reading
Book Review – Arcadia by Lauren Groff
The question of what literary fiction is, or isn’t, is one that both frustrates and fascinates me. I’ve read many novels designated literary and not understood what distinguishes them from really well-written commercial fiction (now sometimes referred to as upmarket commercial). One criterion common to the various definitions of literary fiction is that the writing itself, the … Continue reading
My new novel SCENT – out in paperback on 19 May 2022
The Literary Sofa 