'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Matthew Hollis
|title=Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Most historians tend to refer to Edwardian England as the thirteen-year interlude between the Victorian era and the shots at Sarajevo which precipitated the First World War, an era of relative stability. However, there had been ominous rumblings from the new order of things during the two years or so prior to June 1914, particularly from a new spirit among the younger literary generation. The old Victorian writers, notably the uniquely terrible Poet Laureate Alfred Austin (doubtless a very good man, but an almost comically inept writer of verse) were dismissed as irredeemably old hat by the likes of Rupert Brooke and W.H. Davies. For a short time London was the poetry capital of the world, and the book opens with the opening in January 1913 of Harold Monro’s poetry bookshop in Bloomsbury, which rapidly became a magnet for the self-proclaimed Georgian poets and readers.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571245986</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Fabrice Humbert's French Orange Prize winning 'The Origin of Violence' has a young French teacher as a narrator who, while leading a school trip to Buchenwald concentration camp, sees a photograph of a Jewish prisoner taken in 1941 and is struck by the similarity in appearance of the man to his own father. However, he discovers that not only does the man in the photo have a different name to his, but the man died in 1942. Clearly there are dark family secrets afoot that he sets about discovering.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687500</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gillian Lynne
|title=A Dancer in Wartime: One Girl's Journey from the Blitz to Sadler's Wells
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=
At eight years old, Gill Pyrke was driving her parents crazy, as she couldn't sit still and was nicknamed ''wriggle-bottom''. Her mum took her to see the family GP and told him in great detail how annoying she was. The doctor asked if he could talk to Gill alone and put on some music. She started to dance around and climbed on to his desk. He prescribed ballet classes. She started off in a Bromley dance class where one of her classmates was later to be the famous ballerina Beryl Grey. This story is lovely and funny, and has lots of elements of a dream story, yet is told in a very down to earth style which makes it very convincing. The same could be said of the whole of Gillian Lynne's memoir of her early years, starting out on a brilliant career in dance.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701185996</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rod Campbell
|title=Dear Zoo (Noisy Book)
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=There is something slightly unsettling about the notion of a noisy book; the very idea that you can make a racket with something intended as a quiet pastime is a tiny bit of an oxymoron for me. But not, of course, for your average toddler (let's assume that we are disregarding the din they are able to make just by banging a fair sized hardback such as this, on the table!) And I've never met a child who did not like a book with interactive buttons and flaps – never.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230757650</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Christopher Golden (Editor)
|title=Monster's Corner
|rating=4.5
|genre=Anthologies
|summary=''The Monster's Corner'' is a collection of tales that are told from the monster's perspective. It takes the idea that we are all the heroes of our own story and has a gloriously good time with it. Ranging from the thought-provoking to the strange, to the shocking and gory – they're a great selection of stories from the likes of [[:Category:Kelley Armstrong|Kelley Armstrong]], [[:Category:Kevin J Anderson|Kevin J. Anderson]], Sarah Pinborough and many others.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749957859</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ewa Solarz, Aleksandra Mizielinski and Daniel Mizielinski
|title=Design
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=
Although this is a book for children I can imagine plenty of grown ups who would find it fascinating! It's a wonderful dip in and out book and I actually found myself keeping it in our washing basket in the bathroom so I could have a quick read whenever I needed to spend a penny! It depicts 69 objects from all over the world that were designed in the last 150 years. There's everything here from octopus-inspired lemon juicers through to sofas made to look like a pair of lips or an Ottoman that resembles a shapely lady's bottom!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1877467839</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lois Rock and Steve Noon
|title=The Lion Bible in its Time
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=
This factual book approaches stories from the bible in a historical way, looking at the lives people would have been living at the time, the sort of homes they had and the reigning monarchs of each era. Working through from the old testament to the new testament it covers a wide range of biblical stories and is illustrated throughout with fascinating, detailed pictures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0745960154</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nicola Pierce
|title=Spirit of the Titanic
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Samuel Joseph Scott was fifteen years old when he landed a job in the Belfast shipyards. But when Sam plunges to his death while working on construction of the magnificent Titanic, he doesn't leave her behind. Sam becomes a spirit on board, realising his dream of sailing away with his beloved Titanic on her first... and, of course final voyage. Sam roams freely throughout the ship, from the luxurious first class all the way down to the engine room. He observes the lives of the people on board, become privy to their hopes, dreams and fears. Sam takes particular interest in one third-class family, Jim, Isobel and their children, as they sail away to their new and better life in America. But when disaster threatens the lives of all on board, can Sam find a way to lead the family to safety? And what will become of Sam as the Titanic sinks to the ocean's bed?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847171907</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Beryl Kingston
|title=Off the Rails
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=A young girl from a Yorkshire village was weeping, begging her mother to be allowed just one more night at home, but the carter was waiting for her. The girl was fifteen, unmarried and pregnant. She was to go any stay with her aunt until the baby was born and she would be Mrs Smith whose husband had died at sea. The father of the baby was actually a village boy, George Hudson, who would prefer to pay a fine for bastardy than make an honest woman of the girl. He too ended up leaving home over the matter. In the years to come the paths of Jane, along with her daughter Milly, would cross and recross with Jane swearing that she would have vengeance.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090951</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Foreman
|title=Cat on the Hill
|rating=3.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The story is told through the eyes of the nameless cat. It starts in Summer when he tells how he loves living at the top of the hill with its tremendous views of the sea and the constant visitors who are only too happy to share their sandwiches and the drips from their ice creams. Life is good even with horrible squawky gulls trying to steal his food. He explains how he used to be a ship's cat until both the skipper and the ship became too old to sail the seas.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842704710</amazonuk>
}}
