About Us

Firstly, and most importantly, we would like you to think of The Bookbag as a homely, comfortable place. The corner of your local library perhaps, where you can relax in convivial company and find some suggestions for books to read. We don't have an 'angle'. We're not looking to force feed you the latest books on the shelves. We're not tied to a particular genre. We're not interested in what's fashionable. We just want to share our thoughts with you, if you'd like us to.

You'll find that many of the books on the site have positive reviews. At Bookbag, we read for pleasure. We're far too long in the tooth to get any pleasure from reading a book with the sole purpose of printing knocking copy. We place our books with reviewers we think will enjoy them and who will be able to assess them for what they are, not what they would like them to be. If word on the publishing street leads us to expect a book to be good and we are disappointed by it, we will tell you. If a usually reliable author lets us down, we will tell you. If there are better books of its kind around, we will tell you. But we won't criticise the latest chick-lit hit for not being a Booker candidate. By and large, this is a site that wants to help you find books you will enjoy reading and not one that reserves a corner of the internet for literary spite.

We hope the site is easy on the eye and, most importantly, easy to use. If you think it isn't, or you have a suggestion to make please tell us.

And who are we? Well, The Bookbag was the brainchild of Jill Murphy and Sue Magee, friends who have never met other than over the internet but who share a passion for good books. We'd like to share that passion with you. The website has been designed by us, but we owe a tremendous debt to our friend and technical consultant, Keith, without whom none of this would have been possible.

• Sue Magee lives in Yorkshire. She loves good food, good wine, good books and her dogs; two delicious Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

• Jill Murphy lives in Devon. She loves good food, good wine, good books and her children; two delicious little boys. She thinks you should visit her village hall's website.

You can read about our other reviewers here

If you enjoy reading books and you think you've got what it takes to be a book reviewer, why not consider joining our team? Check out the Reviewer Vacancies page.