On the blog last week
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books on my Autumn 2026 To-Read List (but I inadvertently deleted my blog post).
Wednesday – As always #WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.
Thursday – I published my review of The Housekeeper by Rose Tremain.
Friday – I previewed the events I’ll be attending at this year’s Henley Literary Festival, including authors such as Sebastian Faulks, Elif Shafak, Robert Harris and Maggie O’Farrell.
Saturday – I joined other gardeners for #SixonSaturday sharing six things from my garden this week, including a very hungry caterpillar.
New on my shelves
The City of Echoes by Joseph O’Connor (ARC, Vintage via NetGalley)
May 1944. Rome is still ruled by the Gestapo, but the Allies are closing in.
As tensions rise, John May’s work smuggling escaped prisoners of war to safety through the Vatican Escape Line grows ever more treacherous.
When a hijacked strongbox of Nazi money is discovered, May’s Escape Line comrades hope to use it to help their cause. But the money has been stolen by an infamous Roman criminal: a man whispered about for his legendary ruthlessness.
May’s mission to recover the looted cash will take him to dangerous extremes. As rumours infect the beleaguered city, Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann’s behaviour becomes increasingly desperate. Soon the pair are set on a deadly collision course which will test May’s courage to its limit.
The Boy on the Sofa by Paul Linggood (Review copy, Broadwater Books)
Billy Mercer is fourteen years old and tired of being laughed at.
At school, the other boys mock his cheap clothes and the holes in his trainers. At home, his mother works herself to exhaustion just to keep food on the table. Money is always short. Respect is even harder to come by.
So when someone notices him, Billy is pulled into a world of manipulation, intimidation and empty promises. What begins with subtle threats soon becomes something far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Meanwhile, on the Ashbourne estate, Terry Foster watches helplessly as strangers slowly take over his flat, his routine and what remains of his life.
Told through alternating perspectives from opposite ends of a brutal spectrum, The Boy on the Sofa is a raw and deeply human novel about poverty, exploitation and survival in modern Britain.
What I’m currently reading
I’m still reading Doom Painting by A. K. Blakemore from my NetGalley shelf (it’s 672 pages long), short story collection Creatures of Circumstance by W. Somerset Maugham, the book chosen for me in the latest Classics Club spin, and May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026.
Look out for…
- Book Review: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
- Book Review: Creatures of Circumstance by W. Somerset Maugham
