Author Mary Shelley (pictured left) wrote the famous Gothic novel Frankenstein (pictured right) exactly 200 years ago. Fiona Sampson uncovers the defining moments in Mary Shelley's life including the inspiration behind the story in a new biography. She also shares the tragedy, struggles and unimaginable sadness Mary experiences throughout her life.
NEW FICTION
- MUST READS As a small boy growing up on a Scunthorpe council estate, Stephen Westaby watched a TV documentary that changed his life.
- LITERARY FICTION Five days into 2018, is it possible we already have the year's best novel?
- PICTURE THIS Think of travelling and you probably picture endless queues, hard, aeroplane seats and tedious train delays -but it wasn't always so.
- CHICK LIT Melissa is Amy's best friend - isn't she? Their relationship isn't something Amy has ever questioned.
- CLASSIC CRIME Gathered from publications long out of print, this collection of short stories covers a large part of the career of one of our crime writers.
- CHILDREN'S Ross Welford is a superb storyteller who weaves the magical and mystical into everyday childhood situations.
THIS WEEK'S PAPERBACKS
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Secret of a long life? Stay AWAY from the doctor: Arsenic for headaches, strychnine for wind - it's a miracle the human race has survived
Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen unveil the forgotten experimental medical procedures that suggest practices were torture, rather than ways of making poorly people feel better in their new book (pictured inset). From amputations (illustrated left), lobotomies to smoking to kill germs (pictured right), the book features accounts of the history of pharmaceutical and medical notions, not for the squeamish.
LITERARY NEWS
- Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend, 68, dies at her home in Leicester after a stroke
- New chapter in the history of the Bronte birthplace as new owners turn it into a cafe honouring the family's literary heritage
- Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, hospitalised with lung and urinary tract infections
- You don't need sex to sell! Dan Brown's Inferno tops Amazon best-seller list for 2013 as readers look for different thrills after Fifty Shades trilogy
Flappers: the feminists who knew how to have fun! wild women, hunger marches and tea with Churchill - our top history picks
Tony Rennell reveals the best historical books to gift other this Christmas. His top picks include the memoir, Winston Churchill And Me as well as well as an insight into the glorious, boozy party after World War I in Lost Girls: The Invention Of The Flapper (pictured left). Churchill also shows up in the dynamic personal account of World War II given in Train To Nowhere.