What to read in September - the best new books
From the rulers of a boy’s heart to the glory days of Queen, via the Festival of Britain, this month’s new book releases will rock you.
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From the rulers of a boy’s heart to the glory days of Queen, via the Festival of Britain, this month’s new book releases will rock you.
His mother drowned herself: he couldn’t save her. His Slovak father has lost his mind: "He’s gone gaga altogether…" Jack, aged 12, moves in with Grandad Pio and formidable Nana, a dervish in an apron. It’s a full house, with sexy aunt Rose, uncles Theo and Haulie, and young, troubled JJ.
They’re a shouty, sweary bunch, with their ‘yard of broken-down cars and orphaned cats, and purblind dogs’. And Jack’s doing just fine – or so he thinks, helping Theo and Haulie in their workshop, aligning points, swapping out condensers. And if he’s actually falling apart, they’ll be there for him, his kings.
A novel bursting at the seams with love, humour and compassion.
Mysterious graffiti starts to appear around Oxford, presaging the deaths of members of a literary cabal. After recognising the images as a runic alphabet created by a late fantasy writer, Martha Thornhill and her team at the Clarendon English Dictionary step up to decipher the clues.
Another corker from our very own word-loving columnist, as the City of Dreaming Spires becomes a neighbourhood of nightmares.
It is 1951 in war-scarred London, and war-scarred Harry Flynn (Burma railway, don’t ask!) is part of a team organising the Festival of Britain. When a female colleague goes missing after a date (of sorts), Harry comes under suspicion.
A stroppy teen stepdaughter, a dog named Mrs Betty, and a supporting cast of cranks make for a fun, crazy read in which the most absurd elements turn out to be historically correct.
When Reece finds his parents dead in bed, it seems like a clear case of murder-suicide (his dad holds a gun and left a note). But then Reece’s phone rings, and who should be calling him but…? Classic Barclay, a gritty, twisty, heart-stopping blockbuster in which the past gives up its secrets as the sea gives up bodies.
Believable, complex characters drive a plot that motors along to a shocking denouement.
Farrokh Bulsara, aka Freddie Mercury, would have been 80 on 5 September. To Mary Austin, his one-time lover, fiancée and friend, he left a trove of his paintings, doodles, jottings, photos, compositions, and the lyrics that run through a poignant memoir faithful to the legacy of the brilliant boy from Zanzibar.
Biba, the King’s Road, the birth of Queen… Those were the days of their lives.
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