Maggie Shipstead

Weddings and family drama often go hand in hand and in Seating Arrangements (Blue Door, April), the van Meter clan are on fine...

William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is recalling his research for Return of a King (Bloomsbury, February): “The greatest pleasure for a traveller...

Alice is heartbroken and lonely—recently returned to her family home and the elder sisters she has never really felt related to, to be by...

In 2011 Little, Brown gave Christopher Brookmyre a name change. He had written Where the Bodies are Buried, the first of his crime...

In Paula Lichtarowicz’s The First Book of Calamity Leek (Hutchinson, February), the eponymous hero is a young woman on the cusp...

Ayana Mathis’ The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Hutchinson, January) is a powerful début in the vein of Toni Morrison. In 1923...

Melissa Harrison’s sensitively written, lyrical début novel Clay (Bloomsbury, January) follows four city-dwellers over the...

Chloe Hooper’s The Engagement (Jonathan Cape, January) is a gothic tale about a forced betrothal set in the modern-day Australian...

The first notable début of 2013 is Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist (W&N, December), the spare and haunting tale of a...

A painful case of broken ribs played a part in the genesis of Salley Vickers’ seventh novel The Cleaner of Chartres (Viking,...

In the tradition of William Morris’ advice to “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be...

For historian Dan Snow, just researching castles and castle warfare proved to be dangerous enough. Visiting Krak des Chevaliers in Syria for his...

Excitement has been building for a new four-book Lemony Snicket series, All The Wrong Questions, that launches in October with the first book,...