A Review by Ruth Hunter of Bertrams

At first, this novel seems like a typically quirky American family saga. Set in Chicago in 2004, it centres on the Caspers, who are in crisis. The father, Jonathan, is obsessed with his life’s work of searching for a prehistoric giant squid. The mother, Madeline, conducts research on pigeons and is preoccupied by a cloud she keeps seeing in the sky. The eldest daughter, Amelia, has become a Marxist, whereas the youngest daughter, Thisbe, has become a Christian, and their grandfather, Henry, is rationing his words and trying to escape his retirement home. But this is no ordinary comic novel – Meno transcends the genre by taking us back to Henry’s tough childhood and youth, and to the lives of previous generations of Caspers (all of whom are rather cowardly). His ability to connect these disparate strands into one story sets him above the average contemporary writer, and his sudden flights of fancy are irresistible.

A Review by Ruth Hunter of Bertrams

Set in the world of cyberspace, where no one is who they seem to be, this is a tense and mindboggling thriller. The eponymous hero is one of three brothers, and purports to be a murderer, posting ‘fics’ online to a small group of followers on his domain, ‘badguysrock’. At 42, he’s still living with his violent, domineering mother, and, through his fiction and that of another poster, ‘Albertine’, his past is revealed. But how true are his postings – he calls them fiction whilst heavily hinting that they are autobiography – and can either he or Albertine be trusted? This novel has so many twists and turns it’s impossible to see what’s coming next. Using the internet as a device to explore the idea of deception and impersonation is original and intriguing.

A Review by Ruth Hunter of Bertrams

This is a poignant fable about the relative merits of revolution and caution. Set 15 years in the future, it follows Leonard Lessing, a jazz saxophonist who has lost his way, wasting his days and becoming distanced from his wife Francine. Then he spots a crazy old acquaintance on TV – Maxie, a man he once knew in Texas back in 2006. Maxie is now holding hostages at a house in protest at the ‘Reconciliation Summit’. Should Lennie contact the police, or support his former comrade? Crace paces this novel perfectly, slowly looking back at Lennie’s past and how it  has affected his present.

“This story will appeal to those who still believe that an Englishman’s home is his castle, and to those who have a soft spot for indomitable old women” Daily Telegraph This is the tale of an extraordinary, maverick woman and her even more remarkable achievement.

May Savidge lived in a half-timbered house in Hertfordshire and when the council served her with a compulsory purchase notice to make way for a roundabout, May decided she had to move but so did the house. So she had the whole thing dismantled and shipped to the North Norfolk coast and then spent the rest of her life rebuilding it, single-handed. Her fame spread around the world.

Antiques Roadshow broadcast, unprecedentedly, two features about her house. Now her niece, Christine Adams, who inherited May’s house and completed it at the cost of her own marriage – tells her aunt’s life story from the voluminous diaries and letters she left behind. Christine Adams now runs a Bed and Breakfast in May Savidge’s old house in Norfolk.