Search
Diane Banks
- Nov 26
- 2 min
Henry 'Chips' Channon: The Diaries 1918-1938 edited by Simon Heffer
Hutchinson, 2021 Why? Like any afficionado of early twentieth-century British social and political history, I diligently purchased all...
18 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Nov 4
- 2 min
The Rector's Daughter by FM Mayor
First published by The Hogarth Press, 1924; this edition Virago, 1987 Why? Continuing with the theme of twentieth-century novels about...
29 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Sep 24
- 1 min
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Hutchinson Heinemann, 2023 Why? I love a bit of glitz and glamour, but that has most definitely been out of vogue in fiction for the last...
9 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Sep 3
- 1 min
The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
Originally published Hutchinson, 1960; this edition Penguin Books 1963 Why? It was on the bookshelf where we were staying on holiday and...
10 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Aug 28
- 2 min
Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier
Gollancz, 1943; subsequent Penguin paperback Why? Always a pleasure to discover an unread Daphne du Maurier on your own bookshelf. This...
10 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jul 16
- 2 min
Frost in May by Antonia White
Virago Modern Classics, 1978 (reprinted 1971); first published 1933 Why? Whilst discussing mid-twentieth-century novels with a friend, we...
19 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jul 10
- 2 min
Father by Elizabeth von Armin
British Library Women Writers, 2020 (first published 1931) Why? I’m always interested in examinations of women living unconventional...
18 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jun 18
- 1 min
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Penguin Essentials, 2015 (originally published by André Deutsch, 1987) Why? Because it tells the story of a woman living a life...
15 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- May 13
- 2 min
The Go-Between by LP Hartley
Penguin Modern Classics, 2000 (originally published by Hamish Hamilton, 1953) Why? As the twentieth century becomes history, its...
27 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Oct 16, 2022
- 7 min
The Chief: The Life of Lord Northcliffe, Britain's Greatest Press Baron by Andrew Roberts
Simon & Schuster, 2022 If Ukraine is the first TikTok war, the Arab Spring the first Twitter war and Vietnam the first TV war, then World...
64 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Aug 16, 2022
- 4 min
Rule, Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain by Hannah Rose Woods
WH Allen, 2022 Using the current culture wars as a starting point, in Rule, Nostalgia, historian Hannah Rose Woods takes us on a...
109 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jul 31, 2022
- 3 min
The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Grove Atlantic, 1966 (original); this edition Virago, 2003 Published in 1966 and spanning the years 1945-1965 in the entertainment...
23 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jun 5, 2022
- 5 min
Miss Dior: A Story of Courage and Couture by Justine Picardie
Faber & Faber, 2021 Following her acclaimed biography of Coco Chanel in 2010, writer and former Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Justine...
32 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- May 19, 2022
- 4 min
Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England by Jason Cowley
Picador, March 2022 The “Condition of England Question” is widely attributed to Thomas Carlyle, dating it back to the mid-nineteenth...
32 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Apr 18, 2022
- 5 min
The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by Sebastian Mallaby
Allen Lane, January 2022 Many of the household names of the twenty-first century – Apple, Google, Uber, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Twitter –...
74 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Mar 20, 2022
- 5 min
Quant by Mary Quant
V&A Publishing, 2018 (originally Cassell & Co, 1966) I picked up this copy of Mary Quant’s autobiography – originally published in 1966...
50 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jan 23, 2022
- 4 min
Lily by Rose Tremain
Chatto & Windus, 2021 My interest in Thomas Coram’s Foundling Hospital - which opened in 1741 and was operational in some form until the...
401 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jan 9, 2022
- 3 min
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
Paperback 2021, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (first published in Australia 2019, Allen & Unwin) This was a well-timed read in that it’s set over...
33 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Jan 2, 2022
- 1 min
Silverview by John le Carré
Penguin, October 2021 I first encountered John le Carré, aka David Cornwell, on a conference call shortly after starting at Hodder &...
38 views0 comments
Diane Banks
- Dec 27, 2021
- 5 min
The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain by Tristram Hunt
Allen Lane Books, September 2021 A biography is shaped by the identity, interests and experiences of its author as much as by its...
56 views0 comments