Published in February of this year to accompany the V&A's splendid exhibition - delayed, like so much else, to the late summer. Very good mix of exquisite antique pieces and contemporary fli... read more
Vintage Japanese crime fiction, by a master of the genre, first published in 1950: the head of a clan leaves a very peculiar will, and its reading is followed by a series of unusual murders.
Had Mrs Gaskell lived in Japan and a century later, she might have written this intimate portrait of four sisters of good family living in Osaka in somewhat straitened circumstances. Their e... read more