alex-preston

The Swimmer: The Wild Life of Roger Deakin by Patrick Barkham review – straight in at the deep end

Barkham conjures the life of the wild swimming champion and author of Waterlog in a bravura act of creative memoir

Alex Preston

28, May, 2023 @10:00 AM

Sparrow by James Hynes review – the last, lonely Roman writes

A fourth-century man finds himself alone and adrift in Britain in the last days of empire in a brutal, wonderful novel

Alex Preston

30, Apr, 2023 @2:00 PM

The Windsors at War by Alexander Larman review – rollicking account of the king, the duke and the Nazis

This riotous and engaging biography has it all: two brothers at each other’s throats, two wives who loathe each other, and the duke’s ill-advised visit to Germany

Alex Preston

23, Apr, 2023 @4:30 AM

To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher review – fever dreams and dystopias

This four-part journey through life under lockdown is filled with beautiful writing but the ubiquity of the pandemic experience proves hard to ignore

Alex Preston

20, Mar, 2023 @9:00 AM

‘Eighty-nine perfect minutes’: 30 of the best short films and novels

Is the trend for epic movies and hefty novels getting too much? Our critics redress the balance with a classic compilation of shorter works – plus 10 long ones that are worth your time

12, Mar, 2023 @10:00 AM

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton review – the root of all evil

The Booker-winner’s dark and brilliant tale of a gardening collective’s clash with a billionaire explodes the notion of caring capitalism

Alex Preston

26, Feb, 2023 @9:00 AM

Fiction to look out for in 2023

With new work from Richard Ford, Lorrie Moore and Zadie Smith, plus second novels by Caleb Azumah Nelson and Guy Gunaratne, this is shaping up to be a memorable 12 months

Alex Preston

01, Jan, 2023 @12:00 PM

You Don’t Know What War Is by Yeva Skalietska review – Ukrainian child’s poignant diary

This intimate and immediate account of a 12-year-old girl under siege in Kharkiv includes photos and WhatsApp texts to heart-rending effect

Alex Preston

22, Nov, 2022 @7:00 AM

Bournville by Jonathan Coe review – hugely impressive state-of-the-nation tale

The arch-Europhile examines Britain’s postwar history through the eyes of a Birmingham clan in this warm and poignant novel featuring several familiar characters

Alex Preston

30, Oct, 2022 @12:00 PM

Molly & the Captain by Anthony Quinn review – artful love stories and a gripping mystery

Quinn displays a masterly control of characters and narrative in an intricate, moving novel spanning three centuries

Alex Preston

23, Oct, 2022 @12:00 PM

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes review – a gripping Gorgon retelling

The writer and classicist’s rollicking fourth novel, a reframing of the myth of Perseus and Medusa, questions our perception of the monsters and the heroes

Alex Preston

04, Sep, 2022 @8:00 AM

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris review – a master writer leads us on a 17th-century manhunt

This rich and riotous novel, following the search for two of the men who signed Charles I’s death warrant, is also an important book for our own historical moment

Alex Preston

30, Aug, 2022 @6:00 AM