Ian’s Read & Recommended
If you are looking for an idea for your next book – maybe an author you haven’t discovered or read before,
here are some titles that I have enjoyed.
These recommendations are mainly taken from contributions we have made to
Tewkesbury Direct, as swell as some other reviews.
Click here for Ian’s Book of each Year.

“Hagstone” by Sinead Gleeson
Another novel located on a remote island! This one well off the coast of Ireland where there is a secluded community of women living, who call themselves the Inions -...

“Whale Fall” by Elizabeth O’Connor
The setting of this short novel is a fictitious island off the Welsh coast in September 1938. The island has seen better times, life is hard and the population has...

“Clear” by Carys Davies
Like her two earlier books, "Clear" is short, but what the author manages to include in 146 pages is craftsmanship, telling a more complete story than many of her contemporaries...

“Held” ~ by Anne Michaels
This small but brilliant novel I selected as my Book of the Year for 2024, it is beautifuly written and an inspiring read with many subtle themes. The recurring core...

“Night Watch” : by Jayne Anne Phillips
This American novel is mainly set in a West Virginian Lunatic Asylum, but do not be put off by that. It is an intriguing story spanning the American Civil War...

“Orbital” by Samantha Harvey
Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize... This novella, just 136 pages long, is far removed from Samantha Harvey's earlier much praised novels but in it's own right has been very...