Random House delivered an author packed presentation of big autumn books to booksellers this week. Ian McEwen’s The Children Act sounds like it will be terrific (due September), Simon Schama returns with volume two of his History of the Jews and Rose Tremain has a new collection of short stories coming out in August. Howard Jacobson spoke about his new book J with predictable energy. Helen McDonald’s H is For Hawk, a spiritual journey about grief and the natural world, promises to be a great read. Bake Off runner up Ruby Tandoh is bringing out a cookbook called Crumb and the brilliant Karen Armstrong returns with a history of religious wars called Fields of Blood. (Both September)
With the West Meon Festival coming up I have been starting my reading preparation, beginning with Robyn Young’s The Reckoning, the first part, (all 636 pages), of her epic trilogy about Robert the Bruce. She is appearing with Antonia Hodgson whose first book is called The Devil in the Marshalsea, a dark eighteenth century novel about a murder in the notorious debtors’ prison. Plenty of gore to get stuck into before Saturday 12th July.