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Books
Through A Glass Darkly: Heimat By David Rose
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Not so much a valediction as a brief but sustained elegy for a life lived within achingly intimate distance of the past, David Rose’s short contemplation for Nightjar Press is a condition of its own uncertainty, of its own unreliability as a narrative.
P.ublished 14th April 2026
Books
Death Is Not Always The End: Accidents Will Happen By Andrew J. Field
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
Did she fall or did she jump? Accident or suicide? This novel begins in the court room as the Coroner tries to determine the answer. Lisa Wright was a talented violist who fell – or jumped – from a cliff top while out on a training run.
P.ublished 11th April 2026
Books
A Dish Best Served Cold: An Eye For An Eye By Jeffrey Archer
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
A multi-billion pound arms deal between two governments, art forgery, vendetta and vengeance, corruption and murder, wrongful imprisonment: this novel has them all, set as it is in stately homes, an art gallery, the corridors of government and other, more seedy, locations.
P.ublished 28th March 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: Thirlmere By Rhiannon Hooson
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Photo by Johnny Gios on Unsplash
Thirlmere After we lit the last candle the gales couldn't hold us any more. Along the lanes the walls had begun to slump, water sluicing through them green as grass, but we drove through anyway and out into the valley. The fields were polished flat. Trees were hung with drooping ropes of fleece that caught the breeze like kudzu.
P.ublished 28th March 2026
Books
Blood, Bile, Pus: Bodily Fluids By Liam Hughes
Liam Hughes’ wonderful new take on the medical profession as viewed from the assured, if not patrician, perspective of an informed backward glance corroborates at least one long-held suspicion: that its staff, because permanently beleaguered, are amongst the most sardonic of humourists.
P.ublished 25th March 2026
Books
The Spy WHO Nodded At Me
She has worked alongside British intelligence, been befriended — and duped — by a real spy, and watched her government blow up buildings in the Welsh countryside. Now, with her latest thriller, The Hiding Season, Ava Glass is bringing the shadowy world of espionage to Yorkshire.
P.ublished 14th March 2026
Books
Children's Poem Of The Week: Dance Of The Stream Sprite by Jacqueline Shirtliff
Dance of the Stream Sprite Shuffle through the shady shallows, Leap from log to log, Tango past the tangled brambles, Tiptoe round the bog. Skipping, stepping, pirouetting where the minnows teem; I’m dancing to the mesmerizing music of the stream. Balance over broken branches, Limbo under bridges, Twist and turn through murky tunnels, Samba with the midges.
P.ublished 14th March 2026
Books
Choices Are Never Easy: Birnam Wood By Eleanor Catton
Obviously, the title of this novel would attract any self-respecting teacher (or student) of English Literature even though the blurb makes it quite clear that Shakespeare’s Scottish play has nothing to do with it – or has it?
P.ublished 14th March 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: Gaza By Bill Manhire
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Image by Hosny Salah from Pixabay
Gaza The dead boy tries to open his eyes. He wants to see the world he is leaving. But there is nothing to see here, nothing and nothing, and anyway he is gone. His parents held him while he died but they are both dead, too.
P.ublished 7th March 2026
Books
Women’s Prize For Fiction Reveals 2026 Longlist
The Women’s Prize Trust – the registered charity building a better future by championing women’s writing – has revealed the longlist for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction. The Prize is the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, and is sponsored by Audible and Baileys.
P.ublished 5th March 2026
Books
Toxic Gossip: The Heretic’s Daughter By Kathleen Kent
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
This novel is based on the Salem Witch Trials, a tragic period of American history. It is made all the more personal because the author, Kathleen Kent, is a direct descendant of Martha Carrier who was accused of being a witch, tried and ultimately put to death.
P.ublished 28th February 2026
Books
World Book Day 2026: The Biggest Celebration Of Reading Yet
Image by Michal Jeník from Pixabay
Thursday 5th March promises a day of magic, adventure and stories for children across the UK If you've ever wanted to fall in love with books — or help a child do the same — this is your moment.
P.ublished 28th February 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: A Winter Night By William Barnes (1801-1886)
A Winter Night It was a chilly winter's night; And frost was glittering on the ground, And evening stars were twinkling bright; And from the gloomy plain around Came no sound, But where, within the wood-girt tow'r, The churchbell slowly struck the hour; As if that all of human birth Had risen to the final day, And soaring from the worn-out earth Were called in hurry and dismay, Far away…
P.ublished 28th February 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: The Only English Kid By Hannah Lowe
The Only English Kid When the debate got going on ‘Englishness’, I’d pity the only English kid – poor Johnny in his spotless Reeboks and blue Fred Perry.
P.ublished 21st February 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: Ends By Matthew Sweeney (1952-2018)
Ends At my end of the earth the Atlantic began. On good days trawlers were flecks far out, at night the green waves were luminous. Gulls were the birds that gobbled my crusts and the air in my bedroom was salty. For two weeks once a whale decayed on the pale beach while no one swam. It was gelignite that cleared the air. The uses of village carpenters were many.
P.ublished 17th February 2026
Books
A Triptych Of Magic: And Then There Was You By Miranda Dickinson
Some places have our hearts for all sorts of reasons; the sea has mine even though I no longer live near to it and I have never even been able to swim. We’re an island after all and, Northumberland to Cornwall, the coastal views are magnificent.
P.ublished 14th February 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: To Sleep By John Keats (1795-1821)
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
To Sleep O soft embalmer of the still midnight,       Shutting, with careful fingers and benign, Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd from the light,       Enshaded in forgetfulness divine: O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close       In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes, Or wait the ‘Amen’, ere thy poppy throws       Around my bed its lulling charities.
P.ublished 7th February 2026
Books
The Severed Silence Of the Heart: Lode By Gillian Allnutt
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
The stones, the flowers, the trees speak in Gillian Allnutt’s poetry. The titular ‘Lode’, whose use, here, is not restricted to a single definition – at once a guide, a waymarker, and a rich vein of ore, lode is a serviceably multiform metaphor for giving breathing space to the poet’s preoccupations.
P.ublished 4th February 2026
Books
A Private Investigation: The Devil’s Draper By Donna Moore
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
This sequel to The Unpicking, which I have previously reviewed, begins quite differently.
P.ublished 31st January 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: Ground Gives By Ian Duhig
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Ground Gives Bauman’s Tetley lecture on his Liquid Modernity, how free-floating anxiety is our condition now, brought Heaney’s ‘Anything Can Happen’ to mind, its phrase ‘Ground gives’. Anybody who stepped on an icy pool, believing it strong enough to hold their weight, discovers liquid modernity’s meaning in a gut-churning rush as knowledge swamps faith.
P.ublished 24th January 2026
Books
Careful What You Wish For: I Did It For You By Amy Engel
‘That’s the thing about murder. It’s all fun and games until it happens to you.’ The blurb attracted me to this novel, given that it said it was set in Ludlow, a very pretty market town in Shropshire where I lived for a few years. An unusual and somewhat rural setting for a murder, I thought, until I saw the heading of the first chapter: Ludlow, Kansas. Ah!
P.ublished 17th January 2026
Books
Book Review: A Cool Head In Hell - Harry Silman
Stories of the treatment of Allied prisoners-of-war by their Japanese captors in the Eastern theatres of the second world war would have fallen on deaf ears at my secondary school in the late sixties. Blindsided to the suffering of others by a tendency to self-obsession, there was little scope for empathy in the annals of preoccupied juvenilia.
P.ublished 17th January 2026
Books
Poem of the Week: And Then the Sun Broke Through By David Butler
And Then the Sun Broke Through A sea of jade and muscatel; the sky, gun-metal. Landward, the storm-portending birds, white-lit, Riding wild contours of wind, uplift  To tilt at the raucous crows. This Is how it is to live, the ticker tells, Looping the floor of the newsfeed.  Somewhere, an outrage; an airstrike; Somewhere, a politic withdrawal.
P.ublished 7th January 2026
Books
Arts Book Review: Nick Toczek Wool City Rocker
Long before the arrival of the internet, if you wanted to know what was happening in the music scene or who the latest bands to look out for were, the likes of music magazines NME, Sounds and Melody Maker were indispensable sources of information.
P.ublished 3rd January 2026
Books
Poem Of The Week: Last Christmas Cracker By Steven Matthews
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Last Christmas Cracker From the last Christmas cracker I pulled ever with dad, it seemed there flew not just the golf-tees I will never use, but my yellow kite the line broke from, and the wind wafted into the tall oak where he climbed to get it; my blue wooden yacht which grounded itself in the middle of the council boating lake, where he waded barefoot through the sludge to restore it…
P.ublished 22nd December 2025
Books
All The World’s A Stage: Upside Down & Only The Brave By Danielle Steel
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
Danielle Steel is a billion (yes, billion) copy best-selling author for good reason. She has an uncomplicated style and a proven formula which makes for safe and easy reading. On this occasion, I’m reviewing two of her novels, not just one - call it an early Christmas present!
P.ublished 20th December 2025
Books
Our Children's Playless Days: Snagged On Red Thread By Jazmine Linklater
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Jazmine Linklater’s new long-form poetic meditation is an open admission of failure to describe the ‘widening gyre’ of geo-political chaos.
P.ublished 17th December 2025
Books
Earth, Fire: Notes On Burials By Jayant Kashyap
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
The etymology of words plays much more than a passing role in Jayant Kashyap’s award-winning new collection for Poetry Business: his journey into the katabatic underworld of ritual and cultural observance is illuminated, at every turn, by recourse to the guideposts of language.
P.ublished 13th December 2025
Books
Making Ends Meet: The Pearl Button Girl By Annie Murray
How wonderful to celebrate success! This novel opens with a family travelling by train back from London, having visited The Great Exhibition of 1851. Celebrating all things industrial, it was ‘a triumph of Great Britain’, organised at the behest of Prince Albert. The Fletcher family are on the train, returning to their home in Birmingham.
P.ublished 6th December 2025
Books
Snapshots of a Life: Heartchery by Martin Kiszko
It’s a very long time since I read a book of poetry, a whole book, that is, in one sitting. What a confession for this retired English teacher! But when this book arrived through the letterbox, I was curious.
P.ublished 6th December 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: River Mother By Isobel Dixon
River Mother O the sideways fullness of crab heavy chassis low-slung on the riverbed she is a teeming mass clawed boat tip her a bit to spot the freight her pouch clutched pearls and now she seethes with crablets of tininess writhing spiderlings little sparkles in a battered jewel case rich crustacean mama multiply blessed Potamonautes perlatus Madonna multitudinous you are an ove…
P.ublished 6th December 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: Silk Shirtwaisters From Paris By Janice Warman
Silk shirtwaisters from Paris Clearing clogged cupboards and cluttered shelves, among cracked compacts and drawers stuffed with wads of cotton-wool, we found bright silk shirtwaisters from Paris, a heavy gold chain, a rope of fat, dark amber beads, mother-of-pearl opera glasses, an etched scarab in its polished wooden box, and a slim notebook that held a single line: Alzheimer’s is an…
P.ublished 29th November 2025
Books
The Darkness Of The Mind: Strange Sally Diamond By Liz Nugent
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
Sally Diamond is most definitely strange but she narrates her story very clearly; there is little room for ambiguity especially where Sally is concerned. My only advice to prospective readers is not to start this novel until you have plenty of time to devote to it; my recurring thought was, ‘Just one more chapter.
P.ublished 24th November 2025
Books
Duchess Of Northumberland Launches Spellbinding Novel
Amanita, the first book in The Legends of Lilidorei series from Jane Northumberland.
The Duchess of Northumberland (Jane Northumberland) has officially released the first book in The Legends of Lilidorei series. Amanita is a spellbinding children’s story that brings the inhabitants of Lilidorei, the magical play village, to life for the very first time.
P.ublished 22nd November 2025
Books
All That Is Unspoken: In A Quiet Land By Sean Body
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
The final story of Sean Body’s recent collection almost yields, in precis, a unitary definition of his preoccupations. For the stories presented in the generically entitled In a Quiet Land, although hermetically sealed for distinction, all bear thematic tropes recognisable in each.
P.ublished 22nd November 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: The Day Room (I) By Kit Wright
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Image by Catherine from Pixabay
The Day Room (I) From Kendal Ward, Rainhill Mental Hospital Many are non-plussed By the unexpected behaviour of their clothes And have mislaid forever The art of wearing the face. Gums wedged tight or mouths Locked open in a scream that travels inward Homelessly: Here we all are on your holy mountain.
P.ublished 15th November 2025
Books
Hidden Depths: The Troubled Deep By Rob Parker
You might think that as someone not comfortable swimming in the safety of a swimming pool, let alone the wild waters of the Norfolk Broads, this novel might not be for me, but, from the comfort of an armchair, I can appreciate the beckoning pull of the water and the peace achieved in its ‘blissful silence’ as it calms and soothes the hero.
P.ublished 8th November 2025
Books
Visionary Gleam: The Lake Poets - An Anthology
There is a neat symmetry to the presence of James Rebanks in an anthology of the work of the Lake poets, as though a decontextualised, and profoundly articulate, version of ‘Michael’ were repaying, in eloquence, the faith of Wordsworth in the sheep farmer’s natural integrity.
P.ublished 8th November 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: The Sick Rose by William Blake (1757-1827)
The Sick Rose O rose, thou art sick!
P.ublished 1st November 2025
Books
2025 Forward Prizes For Poetry Announce 'Radical' Winners And Joint Best Collection At Southbank Ceremony
At a packed ceremony in the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday evening, the winners of the 2025 Forward Prizes for Poetry were announced by host Joelle Taylor and chair of judges Sarah Hall. Following stunning performances from the shortlisted poets, the winners of the most coveted and influential prizes for poetry in the UK and Ireland were announced.
P.ublished 28th October 2025
Books
Seeking Golden Nuggets: Hidden Fires By Sairish Hussain
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
I confess my ignorance about the history of India and Pakistan. Over the years, I have watched news broadcasts about war and unrest in that part of the world, never really understanding the reasons for the sectarian violence.
P.ublished 25th October 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: Why Brownlee Left By Paul Muldoon
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Image by Christian Birkholz from Pixabay
Why Brownlee Left Why Brownlee left, and where he went, Is a mystery even now. For if a man should have been content It was him; two acres of barley, One of potatoes, four bullocks, A milker, a slated farmhouse. He was last seen going out to plough On a March morning, bright and early.
P.ublished 18th October 2025
Books
A Kind Of Alchemy: The Secret Collector By Abigail Johnson
Artis-Ann 
Features Writer
I loved this book! Will that do? Probably not, so let me try to explain why.
P.ublished 11th October 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: The Last Train By Vidyan Ravinthiran
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
The last train to arrive in Jaffna during the war 30 years ago rusts on the tracks the unimaginable touch of time has turned it the colour, exactly of this land’s ferrous soil ─of blood that is four men round a fire purple smoke slants upward─trunks form the bier Vidyan Ravinthiran’s remarkable ability to set the tone of a poem in the colours of landscape and memory is never…
P.ublished 11th October 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: Leeds 1975 By Faith Lawrence
Leeds 1975 This night-day, day-night bus is the first, last, only emissary of the lighted world, the thin-as-care suburb of lino and candlewick. A sigh, a stutter, a final choke. Two slippered figures at the stop step forward, then back.
P.ublished 4th October 2025
Books
Rising Star Colwill Brown Wins 20th Anniversary BBC National Short Story Award
Doncaster-born novelist and short story writer, Colwill Brown has won the twentieth anniversary BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (NSSA) for You Cannot Thead a Moving Needle a ‘tense’ and ‘increasingly heartbreaking’ story exploring the long term effects of trauma told in ‘energetic’ South Yorkshire dialect.
P.ublished 1st October 2025
Books
To The Manor Born: No Greater Love By Margaret Dickinson
People’s Friend recommendations are almost a genre of their own: chick-lit, following a formula which is safe and comforting and an easy way to while away a few hours. Following a familiar theme, Margaret Dickinson’s novel sees the resilience of a young lady tested.
P.ublished 27th September 2025
Books
Doctor Who Author Launches New Book In Doncaster
When writer David Howe was nine years old, his father joined the printing department at the Express newspaper, a job he held until retirement. Neither of them could have imagined that this would spark a lifelong obsession. Returning home from the shop floor with spare parts, his father helped David bring Doctor Who’s most feared adversaries – the Daleks – to life.
P.ublished 20th September 2025
Books
Doncaster Author Colwill Brown Shortlisted For BBC National Shortstory Award 2025
Photo credit: jarmoluk via pixabay
The 2025 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University (BBC NSSA) shortlist was announced on the evening of Thursday 11 September 2025 on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. The prestigious award os celebrating its 20th anniversary.
P.ublished 18th September 2025
Books
Poem Of The Week: Pastoral By Ali Lewis
Steve Whitaker
Features Writer
Pastoral Three weeks alone and all I can read are these backwoods American poets with their figs and windfall peaches and their one good chair of four legs from which they observe the changing yaw of the up-early light as it climbs and then brims the horse trough, or the rich patterning on an earthenware jug filled with slow syrup their father tapped himself and sealed, his old clay fing…
P.ublished 16th September 2025
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