Daily Express :: Books Feed

Exclusive short story by Wendy Holden: Paris is for Lovers

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

JUST look at the queue!" Jenny gasped as they followed the crowd through the Métro station.

Kind of Cruel

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

READING a Sophie Hannah novel is a bit like setting off on a long car journey. With no SatNav or map to guide you, you know you'll reach your destination eventually but have no idea where the drive will take you, or the twists and turns you'll encounter along the way.

The Lost History of 1914

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

TIME has done nothing to diminish our fascination with the First World War. Almost 100 years since the Kaiser's troops stamped into Belgium, Birdsong has been on TV and War Horse is a star of stage and screen.

Hope: A Tragedy

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

SHALOM Auslander's new novel, Hope: A Tragedy, begins with a depressed Jewish man finding the famous diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank alive and well in his attic.

Will Booker call William Boyd at last?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FANS of best-selling novelist William Boyd have come to expect surprises. At his best, Boyd conjures up memorable characters in intriguing situations, keeping his readers guessing with twisting plots in readable, accessible novels.

My six best books

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FILM and television actress Celia Imrie, 59, is best known for Calendar Girls and her work with Victoria Wood. She is appearing in Noises Off at the Old Vic and her autobiography The Happy Hoofer is out now. This Thursday she will be on stage at the Criterion Theatre as part of their Lunchtimes With... series, www.criterion- theatre.co.uk

Pick of the paperbacks

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Me Before you 4/5 by Jojo Moyes Penguin, £7.99 LOU CLARK is a creature of habit so when her routine is broken she has to find something else to keep her sane.

Fishing in the murky waters of slippery family secrets

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The White Lie 4/5 by Andrea Gillies Short Books £12.99 A YOUNG woman charges into the drawing room of her parents' estate in the Highlands.

Mad times that rocked a generation

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

AS MICK Jagger said: "The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness."

Mad times that rocked a generation

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

All the MadMen: BArrett, Bowie, drAke, Pink Floyd, the kinks, the who And A Journey to the dArk side of British Rock 2/5 by Clinton Heylin AS MICK Jagger said: "The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness."

Return to dark side is a howling success

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Wolf Gift 5/5 by Anne Rice Chatto & Windus, £18.99 WELCOME back Anne Rice. The author of Interview With A Vampire and the subsequent slew of luscious, humid gothic extravaganzas known as The Vampire Chronicles has been away for too long.

London in the Sixties

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

London In The Sixties by Rainer Metzger Thames & Hudson, £28 IT was the decade of innovation and inspiration powered by youth, affluence and the explosion of the mass media.

Exclusive short story: Going anywhere nice? by Alison McQueen

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

GOING anywhere nice for your holidays?" asked the girl with the scissors.

Review: This Isn't The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

PURE JOY just about sums up Jon McGregor's collection of short stories. Ranging from just two lines, Song (Grimsby), to 30 pages, I'll Buy You A Shovel (Marshchapel), and using the towns of the Norfolk Fenlands as settings, McGregor goes for the underview of life.

Review: The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As a TEENAGER I lost countless nights' sleep to Pan's collections of ghostly short stories, partly because I could never stop turning the pages, partly because they were haunting, the kind of tales which kept you awake, literally hearing bumps in the night.

Review: Rin Tin Tin: The Life And Legend Of The World's Most Famous Dog

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

HE was the movie icon who at his peak earned eight times more than his co-stars. He was the big screen hero who was given the keys to the city of New York, was loved by Greta Garbo and only one small problem denied him an Oscar: he was a dog.

Review: Charles Dickens And The Great Theatre Of The World by Simon Callow

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Yet another book on Charles Dickens? Surely we are already sated with Albion's sparkler, as Dickens once called himself, thanks to biographies, television and radio adaptations in this 200th anniversary year of his birth?

John Barrowman: My six best books

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

JOHN BARROWMAN, 44, is the singer, actor and presenter famous for theatre roles in Anything Goes and La Cage Aux Folles, as well as TV hits such as Torchwood. His children's novel Hollow Earth (Buster Books, £6.99), written with sister Carole, is out now

Our Man In Rome: Henry VIII & His Italian Ambassador

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

IN the past few years Catherine-of-Aragonitis seems to have gripped British historians. Numerous books and articles have been published, viewing her from every angle including, especially appropriate given the nature of the controversy, that from below.

Review: Queen: On Camera, Off Guard by Mark Hayward

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

FROM a grainy black-and-white 1969 photograph capturing the then unknown Freddie Bulsara playing with a band named Ibex to the glory days of glamrockers Queen, this collection of mostly candid images offers an unparalleled insight into Freddie mercury and the band.

Review: Between A Mother And Her Child by Elizabeth Noble

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

ELIZABETH NOBLE has made a name for herself writing tear-jerking blockbusters and her fans won't be disappointed by her latest offering.

Review: Operation Suicide by Robert Lyman

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE Royal Marines who volunteered for a new commando unit under the leadership of Major "Blondie" Hassler were "without exception ordinary young men, from ordinary streets, in ordinary towns across industrial Britain, given the most extraordinary task of their short lives", explains Robert Lyman.

Review: The Flight by MR Hall

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A MAJOR plane crash in England is a rare event so when Flight 189 is forced down into the Severn Estuary it opens a highly unusual case for coroner Jenny Cooper.

Short story: Squeak squeak by Shelley Harris

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

IT'S late, and pitch dark outside.

Review: American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

THE undoubted brilliance of American Dervish is not so much its charming coming-of-age narrative as its setting.