With 2018 fast approaching, here’s Love London Love Culture’s picks of books to start your year with…
1. Still Me by Jojo Moyes: following on from the success of ‘Me Before You’ and ‘After You’ Jojo Moyes brings the character Lou Clark back for a new chapter in her story in which someone will turn her life upside down. Published 25th January 2018.
2. The Wanderers by Tim Pears: this new book from Tim Pears is a story of love, loss and loneliness set against the backdrop of the pre-First World War Devon and Cornwall in 1912.
Leo is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in copses. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might – and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their waggons, horses and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, and must forge on to Penzance, towards the western horizon…
Lottie is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love and Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, and the mysteries of anatomy. Published 11th January.
3. I’ll Keep You Safe by Peter May: this new book from the author is a tale of secrets, uncovering the past and murder….
Husband and wife Niamh and Ruairidh Macfarlane co-own Ranish Tweed: a Hebridean company that weaves its own special variety of Harris cloth, which has become a sought-after brand in the world of high fashion. But when Niamh learns of Ruairidh’s affair with Russian designer Irina Vetrov, then witnesses the pair killed by a car bomb in Paris, her life is left in ruins.
Along with her husband’s remains, she returns home to the Isle of Lewis, bereft.
The Paris police have ruled out terrorism, and ruled in murder – making Niamh the prime suspect, along with Irina’s missing husband, Georgy. And so French Detective Sylvie Braque is sent to the island to look into Niamh’s past, unaware of the dangers that await her. Published 11th January.
4.White King: Charles I – Traitor, Murderer, Martyr by Leanda De Lisle: this new book sets to uncover a Charles I in a completely different light, while unfolding the story and history of England’s bloody civil war that ended with the death of the king.
Less than forty years after the golden age of Elizabeth I, England was at war with itself. The bloody, devastating civil wars set family against family, friend against friend. At the head of this disintegrating kingdom was Charles I. His rule would change the face of the monarchy for ever. Charles I’s reign is one of the most dramatic in history, yet Charles the man remains elusive. Too often he is recalled as weak and stupid, his wife, Henrietta Maria, as spoilt and silly: the cause of his ruin. In this portrait — informed by newly disclosed manuscripts, including letters between the king and his queen — Leanda de Lisle uncovers a Charles I who was principled and brave, but also fatally blinkered. Published 11th January.
5. The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox by Vanda Krefft: William Fox is not a name that is probably familiar to many cinema fans – despite the fact a major Hollywood studio still bears his name. With this biography Vanda Krefft sets to correct this and to explain why Fox’s legacy is central to the history of Hollywood. Published 11th January.
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