On the blog last week
Monday – I published my review of Love Lane by Patrick Gale and a Q&A with Luna Westish, author of Meet Me at the Ruins. I also shared my Top 3 March 2026 Reads.
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books Titles That Describe Me. And I shared an extract from The Oxford Affair by Lynne Kaufman.
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 celebrated the announcement of the shortlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026.
Friday – I published an excerpt from The Unforgettable Mailman by April Howells.
Saturday – I joined other gardeners for the #SixonSaturday meme, sharing six things happening in my garden this week.
Sunday – I concluded a busy blogging week with my review of Thunderball by Ian Fleming for the #1961Club.
New on my shelves
The Weight of Angels by John Boyne (Doubleday via NetGalley)
When the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: ‘For Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite’. The most feted playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiralled into public disgrace, humiliation and an early death.
But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? This is the premise of John Boyne’s extraordinary new novel, The Weight of Angels.
Rather than dying in penury in Paris at the age of forty-six, what if he had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as celebrated, dramatic, tumultuous and exhilarating as the first?
In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the great Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.
Miss Veal and Miss Ham by Vikki Heywood (Muswell Press)
It is 1951 and behind the counter of a modest post office in a leafy Buckinghamshire village Miss Dora Ham and Miss Beatrix Veal maintain their careful facade as respected local spinsters. But their true story is one of passion: suffragist activists who fell in love in the 1900s, danced in London’s secret gay clubs between the wars, and comforted one another during the first night of the Blitz. Together they have built a life of quiet dignity and service in rural England.
But now the harsh realities of the post-war world are encroaching as over the course of one pivotal day their carefully constructed world begins to fracture, forcing Miss Veal and Mis Ham to face heart-breaking decisions.
Farewell to Eden by Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson Heinemann via NetGalley)
Philip Deval, a soldier recently returned from the beaches of Normandy, arrives in Palestine on a peace-keeping mission in the final days of the British Mandate. The Sea of Galilee glitters in the distance as war-weary troops marvel at the novelty of oranges and sun – a paradise that belies a fierce new conflict about to erupt.
Some years later, Philip begins work teaching at a school in the English countryside and meets the enigmatic music mistress, Frances Darwood. Over long evenings spent listening to records in her music room, they grow close. But Philip is a changed man, and must confront the secrets and scars of all he has lived through – which threaten, even now, to upend his future.
What I’m currently reading
I’m reading Paper Sisters, Dark is the Morning from my NetGalley shelf and All Cats Are Grey for the blog tour.
Look out for…
- Book Review: A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia
- Book Review: A Far-Flung Life by M. L. Stedman
- Book Review: All Cats Are Grey by Susan Barrett
What Cathy Read Next... 