A book where our children's future puts our present on trial for standing by while the world burned is always going to float my boat. But for all the popping candy of climate indignation that The Year of The Dugong sets off for me, a novelist's first duty is to tell a good compelling story and Ironmonger delivers that.

On a sunny September Saturday I headed down for a first visit to the still very fresh new Seamus Heaney Centre on University Street in Belfast for a day of exploring multiple facets of weird fiction. I took phone notes on the panels I attended and they form the basis of this rather long post,

Like all good mysteries - it is fun to go back and re-read the opening chapters to see all the foreshadowing by which the author has treated the reader so fairly with hints and clues that become so Why-didn't-I-see-that? obvious with hindsight. There were some twists that I anticipated just a few chapters before the actual reveal, but others that were a delicious surprise

The plot wends as sinuously and as riven with poison as a snake, with many potential murderers for Bianca to unveil, all while trying to avoid the deadly games of a capricious king made cruel by unchallenged power. Roland is at once, foe, ally and maddening distraction and the question is always how far and how firmly should or could the planetborn stand together.

Amy Lilwall’s novel The Water That May Come speaks to contemporary concerns about climate breakdown and anti-migrant rhetoric

PM said he would set bar at £500k, but trade unions say funding reforms could undermine their ability to donate to Labour

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John Ironmonger's latest book The Angel of St Piran, was a very eagerly awaited pleasure which I started knowing only that it featured a young researcher living within a troop of chimpanzees. Avoiding even the little reveal within the fly sheet certainly heightened my anxious enjoyment of the narrative so I will try to keep this review spoiler free.

Reform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’

The plot twists and wriggles in delightful ways, managing to constantly surprise such that I kept on finding myself checking the progress bar on my kindle and thinking. "There's too many percent of the book left, so although this feels like the climax it can't be the climax - there must be more to come!" and there always was, right up to the last page.

A new study finds that violent attitudes towards women are not just a social issue but a matter of national security.

Do it.

At least 165 people have died, with hundreds of foreign nationals from India, US, UK, Australia, Malaysia and Ukraine among those missing

PM said he would set bar at £500k, but trade unions say funding reforms could undermine their ability to donate to Labour