'Suspicion' by Seicho Matsumoto, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

14 January 2026

Having enjoyed 'Tokyo Express', Seicho Matsumoto's intriguing Hitchcockian mystery novel set in 1950s Japan (reviewed here in June 2024), I came across another book by Matsumoto, 'Suspicion' (also recently translated by Jesse Kirkwood). This is more a novella than a novel - a short tale told through the eyes of a journalist who talks to the lawyers defending a woman with gang connections who is suspected of murdering her husband. Loosely based on an actual crime from 1974, 'Suspicion' was first published in Japanese in 1982. It's a slight story but is still a satisfying puzzle, beautifully written in that same lovely polite style (feeling more 1950s than 1980). 

'The Fifth Step' by David Ireland

8 January 2026

On Wednesday we were at the Rufus Centre in Flitwick to see a NTLive filmed screening of 'The Fifth Step' by David Ireland from the Soho Place Theatre in London. This two-hander, performed in the round in a production directed by Finn den Hertog, stars Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden as fellow members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Through a series of conversations we see their relationship develop while their personal journeys speed in opposite directions. 'The Fifth Step' is a dark comedy, its very funny script drawing us into some serious and disturbing topics. It's also an odd couple comedy, with the two characters' age, class, experience and background very alien from each other. There is no-one better than Martin Freeman at mugging in astonishment as his face reveals his dawning understanding of what has just been said. And Jack Lowden gives an incredibly physical performance, constantly twitching and pacing with nervous energy. It's a very cleverly written play that takes you to dark places without taking itself too seriously. 

'The Hallmarked Man' by Robert Galbraith

8 January 2026

It was only when I started the latest Cormoran Strike detective novel, 'The Hallmarked Man' by J K Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith), that I realised I had completely missed the previous book in the series, 'The Running Grave'. I don't think it mattered too much. Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott are still spending a tedious amount of time on routine surveillance, while stumbling on an impossibly complicated murder plot and maintaining their will-they-won't-they mutual attraction. Like its predecessors, 'The Hallmarked Man' (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Robert Glenister) is ridiculously long (31 hours of audio) and desperately in need of a good editor. The main story of an unknown man murdered in a silver vault is actually five separate stories, as each of the five potential victims reveal their own elaborate narratives. The unraveling of the puzzle is engaging and entertaining but it could definitely have benefited from some pruning. And it was fun to continue my game of spotting the glaringly incorrect minor details in J K Rowling's very deliberately real-world contemporary London - this time including a character who spends all day riding a tube train round and round the Circle Line, despite the Circle Line not having run continuously in a circle since 2009.
 

'The Forsyte Saga' by John Galsworthy, dramatised by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan

 8 January 2026

Between Christmas and New Year we were at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see the Royal Shakespeare Company production of John Galsworthy's 'The Forsyte Saga', dramatised in two parts by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan. I was vaguely aware of 'The Forsyte Saga', mainly from hearing a BBC Radio 4 dramatisation some years ago. That adaptation was the work of McJenna and Coghlan who later decided to use it as the basis for a new stage version which premiered in 2024 at the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park and has now transferred to the RSC. To strip Galsworthy's nine novels (written across the first three decades of the twentieth century) into two plays, they sensibly decided to focus on two of the main narratives. Part 1 starts in 1886 and tells the story of Irene Forsyte and her troubled relationship with her husband Soames. Part 2 jumps to the 1920s to focus on Fleur Forsyte. Both plays are narrated (from 1926) by Fleur, who is trying to piece together the reasons for the great schism within the Forsyte family. The plays, directed by Josh Roche, use a very bare stage to allow for multiple rapid scenes, with some characters jumping instantly from one setting to another. A strong cast do a great job of bringing the family and the period to life, with Fiona Hampton as Irene, Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Fleur and Joseph Millson as Soames standing out. And the period costumes by Anna Yates are gorgeous.

'Famous Last Words' by Gillian McAllister

8 January 2026

I'm a fan of the incredibly clever, twisty, tense family thrillers written by Gillian McAllister, and I really enjoyed her latest novel, 'Famous Last Words'. Like many of her books, this plot throws an unsuspecting person suddenly into a violent, scary world of crime. Camilla is about to restart work after maternity leave, dropping her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time, only to discover as she reaches the office that her husband is the perpetrator of an armed siege and is holding three people hostage at gunpoint - which is not something she had seen coming. The piecing together of this unbelievable and shocking situation and how it came about takes the reader on Gillian McAllister's usual journey from unfathomable implausibility to ingenious resolution. It's another pacy, scary, gripping contemporary thriller, which grabbed my attention and made me charge through the novel. 

'What Alice Forgot' by Liane Moriarty

7 January 2026

Having read Liane Moriarty's most recent novel 'Here One Moment' (reviewed here in January 2025) it was interesting to discover a much earlier book, 2009's 'What Alice Forgot', and to see that Liane Moriarty's entertaining style of suburban Australian domestic family life was already established then. The premise of 'What Alice Forgot' is that a head injury causes Alice to lose the last 10 years of her memory - waking to discover she is not 29 years old and expecting her first baby but 39 with three children. Her perfect recall of everything up to 10 years ago but nothing since does feel a bit contrived but allows for an enjoyable form of time travel. Encountering her own mother, transformed from how she remembers her, is like an alternative timeline scene from 'Back to the Future'. Liane Moriarty always reminds me of Anne Tyler but this feels like her most Tylerish novel. She constructs a great cast of slightly eccentric family and friends and it's fun for the reader to put the missing years back together with Alice. It's a funny, moving thought-experiment book.

'Playground' by Richard Powers

7 January 2026

I'm grateful to Gareth Coles for recommending Richard Powers' remarkable 2024 novel 'Playground'. This is an interesting and unusual tale about the oceans, climate change and artificial intelligence. Initially the separate narratives - tracing the lives of students in an American university in the 1990s, a young girl's journey to become a diver and oceanographer, starting in the 1940s, and the contemporary story of the inhabitants of a small island in French Polynesia - feel like intriguing short stories without revealing the bigger picture. But gradually the links between these separate stories become clearer and this complex structure becomes quite compelling, moving from feeling worthy but not gripping to a fascinating jigsaw puzzle. But the book shifts to another level with a huge unexpected metatextual twist which suddenly makes sense of everything you've read so far. The scenes on the island with its cast of eccentric inhabitants - a population of 82 about to vote on the future of their home - reminded me of the novels of Louis de Bernières. And the parallel historic backstory to the oceanographer and her dives reminded me of the famous aviator in 'Great Circle' by Maggie Shipstead (reviewed here in July 2022). The writing is beautiful. and the ecological themes are important and clearly articulated. But it was the ingenious narrative structure of the book that finally gripped me. 

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

17 December 2025

The Northampton Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Christmas Cracker’ concert - a Sunday-afternoon, family-friendly performance - always features a narrated piece. This year we told two stories to our packed audience at the Spinney Theatre in Northampton. In the first half of the concert our compere William Thallon narrated 'Paddington Bear's First Concert' – in which Herbert Chappell creates an extensive theme and variations from his signature tune for the old BBC TV 'Paddington'. And after the interval William told the story of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ in a version by Lawrence Killian, with words by Margaret Killian. This year’s concert was a particularly Christmassy Christmas Cracker - with no film music and almost every piece featuring familiar Christmas carol tunes. It was billed as a British Christmas, focussing on works by UK composers, including ‘A Christmas Overture’ by Nigel Hess and Malcolm Arnold’s arrangement of ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ - but still finding room for our signature ‘Sleigh Ride’ by Leroy Anderson. It was a very slick, enjoyable concert, brilliantly held together by conductor John Gibbons and featuring excellent solos across many sections of the orchestra but I will particularly remember Helen Taylor’s beautiful flutter-tongue piccolo solo evoking Paddington’s Darkest Peru. 

‘Blue Lights’ by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson

12 December 2025

I’m a big fan of ‘Blue Lights’ - the brilliant BBC TV police drama by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson which is set in present-day Belfast. The first series of this show which follows a response team of rookie police officers in a Belfast station focussed on events in a republican community in West Belfast. Series two was set in a loyalist community in East Belfast and series three, which I have just finished watching, turns to leafy South Belfast. I’m guessing I know where series four will be set: I just hope that’s not the end of the story. ‘Blue Lights’ is a police procedural that makes you genuinely care for the individual police officers, and sympathise with the impossibility of their jobs. It’s also incredibly tense. I was watching an episode of the latest series on a flight to Dublin a few weeks ago and realised part-way through that I was holding my fingers in front of my face and peeking through the gaps. Some scenes are impossible to watch but completely unmissable. The show paints a realistic picture of contemporary Northern Ireland - and has a great soundtrack featuring some wonderful new local music. I realised quite early in series one that ‘Blue Lights’ is essentially a modern Belfast version of the classic 1980s American cop series ‘Hill Street Blues’ - and that only made me like it more. All three series of 'Blue Lights' are available on BBC iPlayer.

The Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham

5 December 2025

Last weekend we were in the pretty town of Cookham on the Thames in Berkshire to visit the Stanley Spencer Gallery. It’s a lovely little museum celebrating Cookham’s most famous resident. The gallery is currently focussing on Spencer’s final unfinished painting ‘Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta’ - a painting frozen mid-creation. This huge canvas has been lowered from its usual position high on the wall to floor level to allow visitors to examine it closely. It is fascinating to see, in the unpainted sections, Spencer’s grid lines and sketches. Throughout autumn 2025 a conservator from the Courtauld Institute is working in the gallery, carefully examining the painting, and explaining her work (and Spencer’s technique) to visitors. Stanley Spencer died in 1959 but there are still some Cookham residents who remember him pushing his pram (filled with paints and brushes) around the town to find subjects for his works. The pram is now displayed in the gallery, as are sketches for Spencer’s incredible war frescoes in Sandham Memorial Chapel which we visited at Burghclere, Hampshire, in November 2023. 

‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ by Stuart Turton

28 November 2025

Having really enjoyed Stuart Turton’s remarkable novel ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ (reviewed here in April 2019) - a murder mystery in which the narrator appears to be reliving the day of the murder, each time inhabiting the body of a different person - I was keen to read more by Stuart Turton. I have now finished reading his 2020 novel ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ - a brilliant historical epic set in 1634 on a Dutch East India Company sailing ship on a journey from Batavia back to Amsterdam. It’s a wonderfully entertaining mix of detective fiction, thriller, period drama and ghost story - a bit more conventional in narrative structure than ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ but just as inventive and with a similarly well-drawn cast. It reminded me of Matthew Kneale’s marvellous comic historical novel ‘English Passengers’, 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet’ by David Mitchell (reviewed here in August 2011) and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. ‘The Devil and the Dark Water’ is a long book that gripped me throughout and seemed to whizz by. More Stuart Turton please!