Month: July 2018

Man Booker Longlist 2018

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Man Booker Longlist 2018 shelf

The longlist, or ‘Man Booker Dozen’, for the £50,000 Man Booker Prize was announced on Monday 23rd July. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, first awarded in 1969, is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in the UK and Ireland. This is the first year that novels published in Ireland have been accepted. This year’s longlist of 13 books was selected by a panel of five judges: by the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah (Chair); crime … Read more

Review: Where the World Ends

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Where the world ends front cover

Based on a true story from the wildest and most remote of the Scottish Isles and on events which took place nearly 300 years ago, Geraldine McCaughrean brings to life the characters from a very alien time and place so wonderfully that we instantly empathise and become engrossed in their ordeal. A party of nine boys and three men is set ashore on an isolated rock stack half a day’s sea crossing from St Kilda. They are to collect the … Read more

World Cup Book Bingo

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The 2018 World Cup is coming to an end and to celebrate the countries in the quarter finals, we have created a World Cup Book Bingo. The books in the table above are translations of works from the eight countries – and in England’s case, two suggestions of titles by authors whose experiences might have been far from your own. CCB’s Belgian title suggestion, The Misfortunates by Demitri Verhurlst, is a semi-autobiographical novel about the author’s ‘shambolic’ upbringing and a … Read more

Review: Owl Sense

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As a writer and naturalist, Miriam Darlington sets out to deepen our connections to wildlife,  “to increase … curiosity  for, understanding of and sympathy with the natural world”. Entranced by a close-up encounter with a captive owl, she plans to study every UK native species in the wild and learn about its biology, ecology and cultural associations. As the project begins her teenage son Benji becomes seriously ill and the family have to adjust and provide the care and support he needs. … Read more

British Sporting Summer

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Are you spending as many spare hours as possible watching Wimbledon with a plate of strawberries? Or will you be spending this weekend admiring elegantly designed cars race around the Silverstone track? We’ve got some great book suggestions for sports fans at the height of this British Sporting Summer! For a hilarious and passionate take on the Wimbledon championship, Standing in Line is ‘packed with funny anecdotes, strange encounters and heartwarming affirmations of the power of sport, and in particular tennis, to … Read more