More about books

My More About Books bookstore where books can be purchased online can be found here or from any 'buy this book online' link. If you buy books linked to this site, I earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

For book news, events and recommendations, sign up for my weekly e-newsletter here.

As a writer and editor, I have enjoyed many years meeting and interviewing many fascinating people, and visiting wonderful locations worldwide. Take a look at my website here for an archive of my published articles.

These days I also indulge my passion for books, reading and writing by interviewing authors, hosting events and sharing my reviews and recommendations.

I've organised visits to Woodbridge by Alexander McCall Smith, Margaret Drabble, Victoria Hislop, Griff Rhys Jones, Kate Mosse, Deborah Moggach, Maggie O'Farrell, Michael Morpurgo, Robert Peston, Kate Humble, Max Hastings and many more.

I've interviewed Simon Mayo for the First Light Festival; Simon Garfield, Anna Pavord and Melissa Harrison for The Cut Halesworth; Louise Doughty, Salley Vickers and Esther Freud for Felixstowe Book Festival; Barbara Erskine and Alan Johnson MP for Suffolk Libraries, as well as authors for Lavenham Literary Festival, FolkEast and the HighTide Festival in Aldeburgh.

For more than 10 years I co-hosted a book club on air for BBC Radio Suffolk with the afternoon presenter, Lesley Dolphin. You can listen again to our conversations by following the link below. 

In 2008 I launched an open book club in Woodbridge and we have been meeting each month ever since.

Each week I compile an e-newsletter offering book news, author events, my reviews and recommendations. If you'd like to receive it, please click here.

Thank you for reading
Catherine

What's on

Wednesday 18th October, 12.00pm
at Riverside Cinema
The bestselling novelist visits to introduce 'The Figurine', her fabulous new book once again set in Greece, but also featuring a small town in Suffolk!
Sunday 26th November, 2.00pm
at Riverside Cinema
Novelist Nicola Upson is best known for her series of mysteries centred around real-life crime writer Josephine Tey. This time the setting is Hollywood, Hitchcock and the film 'Rebecca' - which we can watch together on the big screen after the author talk.
Wednesday 29th November, 7.00pm
at Riverside Cinema
Get in the festive spirit and meet tv presenter and farmer Adam Henson as he tells us about 'Christmas on the Farm'. Adam will be recalling 50 years of memories of Christmas on his Gloucestershire farm, and he'll be signing copies of his book - a perfect Christmas gift!

Events Archive

Visit my archive pages for details of all events in recent years.

Listening in

For more than 10 years I co-hosted a monthly book club on BBC Radio Suffolk with the presenter Lesley Dolphin. You can listen to past discussions here.

Reader recommendations

At the end of each year, members of the Book Group meet together to share their favourite titles and offer ideas for gifts for friends and family, and for new authors to try ourselves. For 2022 the titles that were mentioned are listed here.

Buying books

I've linked the reviews on my website so that you can purchase online if you wish (and I will receive a small commission for each purchase, with a further commission going to all independent bookshops). 

Click here for my page on bookshop.org and do consider using it whenever you wish to buy online. 

Book reviews

My recent recommendations

Here are the books I've been enjoying recently, both fiction and non-fiction titles.

Satoshi Yagisawa
A wonderfully quirky and poignant tale of lives revolving around a bookshop in Japan.
Publication date: 4th July 2023
Gabrielle Zevin
Publication date: 29th June 2023
Kate Bottley
Recommended non-fiction
Part memoir, part life lessons, part introduction to faith, this is an entertaining and wide ranging read from the popular tv vicar!
Publication date: 14th September 2023
Hardback edition
Cal Flyn
Recommended non-fiction
Publication date: 23rd December 2021
Rose Tremain
A wonderful novella telling the tale of Marianne Clifford, unhappy in love and trying to make her way in London and the provinces in the 1960s.
Publication date: 21st September 2023
Hardback edition
Richard Osman
Continuing the adventures of the Thursday Murder Club, this is the fourth mystery for the crime-solving retirees.
Publication date: 14th September 2023
Hardback edition
Florian Gadsby
Recommended non-fiction
A stunning tale of a potter's passion for his craft. Beautiful images, lots of information, and a powerful insight into a discipline and an...
Publication date: 14th September 2023
Hardback edition
Ann Patchett
A story of mothers and daughters, fame and ambition, destiny and choice.
Publication date: 1st August 2023
Hardback edition
Esme Young
Recommended non-fiction
A fascinating story of a life well lived by the judge of tv's 'The Great British Sewing Bee'.
Publication date: 2nd March 2023
Josh Littlejohn
Recommended non-fiction
The entrepreneurial spirit could be the answer to society's troubles, if we change our outlook and motivation.
Publication date: 17th August 2023
Hardback edition
Shelley Read
A heart-wrenching tale of love and loss and the harrowing decisions faced by a young woman in rural America.
Publication date: 13th April 2023
Hardback edition
Victoria Hislop
A beautiful story of a family and a community, and the links with the ancient past. In addition to a compelling and moving storyline, there's...
Publication date: 28th September 2023
Hardback edition

For children

These are my most recent recommendations for children. Click here to see listings by age.

by Frances Hardinge
A gripping gothic thriller with magic, ghosts and a coming-of-age, beautifully illustrated.
Publication date: 21st September 2023
Hardback edition
by Liz Kessler
A beautifully told dual narrative with equally gripping stories of the present day issues facing a young girl at school and home, and wartime tragic...
Publication date: 14th September 2023
Hardback edition
by Sally Nicholls
A nostalgic tale of three young women in 1896 returning to their very different lives after boarding school. Told in letters, with a modern slant.
Publication date: 7th September 2023
Hardback edition
by Matt Goodfellow and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton
A wonderfully warm and hopeful story told in verse, with beautiful illustrations. There are challenges but great characters too. Brilliant!
Publication date: 7th September 2023
by Isla McGuckin and illustrated by Catalina Echeverri
April and her mother have to move to temporary accommodation. Their story seeks to help all children dealing with a big life change.
Publication date: 15th August 2023
by Simon Packham
Josh has learnt ways to cope with his worrying, but then he has to move schools. A page turner which handles issues with fun and a light touch.
Publication date: 3rd August 2023
by AM Howell
The first in a new series of Mysteries at Sea, this is a fabulous adventure.
Publication date: 3rd August 2023
by Kathryn Foxlee and illustrated by Freda Chiu
A nostalgic, rural setting for a story about myths and legends, and a wyrm. Great central character in Mary-Kate.
Publication date: 3rd August 2023
by Catherine Rayner
A beautiful, gentle and reassuring story about how one particular wolf dealt with the things worrying him.
Publication date: 27th July 2023
Hardback edition
by Helen Peters
A nostalgic story of boarding school capers, ghostly goings-on in a wartime setting, based on real events. Brilliant!
Publication date: 6th July 2023

Look out for

These titles will soon be published but are not yet available in the shops. 

by Zeb Soanes and illustrated by James Mayhew
Recommended for children
Publication date: 17th October 2023
by Sophie Anderson
Recommended for children
Publication date: 26th October 2023
by John Boyne
Publication date: 2nd November 2023
by Nicola Upson
Publication date: 2nd November 2023

News

Sunday 1 October 2023

Through the keyhole

Something I enjoyed as a child was to visit the houses of authors I'd read, or had heard of - the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier.

There was something rather wonderful about seeing where they sat and wrote, the views they enjoyed, the domesticity that surrounded them. It felt that I was gaining an insight into their creativity, their inspiration and it made them more real, and their achievement a little more attainable for me, too. It fuelled my ambition to be a writer.

So what would it be like, then, to own and live in a house that was once that of a famous, a successful author?

I've been pondering that possibility with the news of two houses which have been put on the market recently. Of course they are not places I would seriously choose to live in but the fact that they have been made available has caused me to wonder, to imagine.

The bestselling novelist John Le Carre's house on the clifftop in Cornwall and the author and environmentalist Roger Deakin's house in Suffolk have both come up for sale.