RLB’s weekly recommendations
Two years ago, Kerry Hudson decided to retrace the journey she had taken from a poverty-stricken childhood to becoming a prizewinning novelist with an international reputation. The result is this startling memoir which tracks her life from early childhood days in Aberdeen, the daughter of a single mother who worked as a packer in the … Continue reading Book of the Week, 15th June 2019
In the face of a global problem like climate change it is all too easy to feel helpless. Last August, school girl Greta Thunberg’s response was to skip school and stage a one-person protest outside the Swedish parliament. In a few months she has become a leading voice in the green movement. She has addressed … Continue reading Book of the Week, June 8th 2019
Patrick Denney Whether you call it Britain’s oldest recorded town or its first city, there is no doubt that Colchester has a long and fascinating history and has enjoyed national and international prominence in many fields. Most well-known is probably its importance for the wool trade which dates right back to the thirteenth century when … Continue reading Book of the Week, June 1st 2019
Eleven-year old Aya is an asylum seeker. With her mother and little brother, Moosa she struggles to build a new life in Manchester. They have been in England just a few weeks when she hears the sound of a piano spilling over from the room above the community centre. Aya cannot resist peeping round the … Continue reading Book of the week, May 25th 2019
It is often said that behind the jokes of comics and clowns stands a sensitive, tortured soul desperately seeking love and acceptance by making audiences laugh. Award-winning stand up, Robin Ince begins by asking if there is any truth in this cliché. With the help of fellow comedians, he looks for parallels in upbringing or … Continue reading Book of the Week, May 18th 2019
Signed copies available We bury treasure. We bury bodies. And deep within the earth we bury the radioactive waste from our nuclear power plants. Below the surface we keep safe things that we value and we hide things that we fear. Robert Macfarlane explores our relationship with what lies below the land we walk upon. … Continue reading Book of the Week, May 4th 2019