Claire Fuller’s novel Swimming Lessons is published this week in the UK and will be out next Tuesday in the US. She joined Jenny Murray on BBC Woman’s Hour to discuss it today.
Andy McNab, author of Bravo Two Zero, argues in the Guardian today that joyless education is damaging the literacy of poor children.
The Guardian also rounds up the best paperbacks so far this year. The list includes Joanna Cannon’s The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Kit de Waal’s My Name Is Leon, and Julian Barnes’ The Noise of Time, a fictional biography of composer Dmitri Shostakovich. The non-fiction selection features All at Sea, a memoir of love and loss written after Decca Aitkenhead watched her partner drown saving their son from a riptide. Also on the list is the timely A Very Expensive Poison, Luke Harding’s investigative reporting on Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian spy who fled to the UK and was subsequently poisoned.
Peter Hanington was inspired to write his 2016 novel, A Dying Breed, by his time working on Radio Four’s iconic Today Programme. He tells us more here.
There is more bad news for libraries as councils face funding gaps.
To cheer us all up, Miranda Hart is publishing a joy-filled book entitled Miranda’s Daily Dose of Such Fun! in aid of Comic Relief. We could certainly all do with that.
