BOOKS OF THE WEEK
I, Spy: A Bletchley Park Mystery by Rhian Tracey
Piccadilly Press, £7.99 (ebook £5.99) Review by Jane Kirby
If you know any children who love reading stories set during the Second World War, this mystery could be right up their street. I, Spy is an adventure set in Bletchley Park (once the topsecret home of code breakers) in 1939, and tells the story of Robyn, a 12-year-old girl who has her heart set on finding out what is going on behind closed doors. Together with friends Mary and Ned, she embarks on a journey to discover the truth – including decoding what the tightlipped adults actually mean. As well as being full of twists and turns, the novel is educational to boot, introducing children to issues such as evacuation and the use of carrier pigeons in intelligence gathering.
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks
Jonathan Cape,£16.99 (ebook £9.99) Review by Ian Parker
In late 1970s London, young factory worker Yamaye seeks the spirit of her lost mother and spends her weekends dancing the night away with friends at a club called The Crypt. But just as her horizons are expanding, tragic events break the bonds of youth and send her on a very different voyage of discovery. Against the backdrop of race riots, she must escape home, navigate the backstreets of Bristol, and find her way to her Jamaican roots. Jacqueline Crooks’ lyrical debut dances to the rhythm of the reggae music that pulses throughout it, in a powerful portrait of black womanhood in late 20th century Britain and beyond.
Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99 (ebook £11.89) Review by Lauren Gilmour
This dazzling debut is a character-led journey through New York in the 1960s. Seventeen-yearold Mae gets a job as a typist in Andy Warhol’s famous studio, where she is introduced to the secret world of the artist and his associates. Not only does this novel show the glamorous side of Warhol’s world, but also the seedy underworld that was kept away from the newspapers and photographers. A little thin on the plot, Mae’s character development through the novel is what will keep you reading, as she makes the change from impressionable high-school dropout, to a stoic cynic, in the space of just a few months. It is a beautifully written debut by Nicole Flattery, who has a promising future ahead of her.
Hags: The Demonisation Of MiddleAged Women by Victoria Smith Fleet, £20 (ebook £11.99) Review by Eleanor Fleming
Victoria Smith’s Hags is a brilliantly witty, engaging, and insightful book; a righteous polemic which examines and questions why middle-aged women are hated – and, crucially, what this means for women today. It covers a broad range of themes – everything from care work to sex and beauty – and looks at how it relates to middle-aged women. From early modern witches to today’s ‘Karens’, Smith explores in great depth the ageism and misogyny directed at older women through history and examines why these women are treated with such vitriol and disdain. Hags is a punchy, thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable read.