Books and links - or one thing leads to another

   

    - Harriet Lane's novel Alys, Always impressed and engrossed me recently (as you can tell from this post), and last week Harriet was on Woman's Hour talking to Jenni Murray about the book. Click here and then scroll down and click on 'Chapter 5' to hear that item from the programme.

   

    - Sally Gardner's The Double Shadow (post on it here) was one of my 'best books of 2011'. If you haven't already read it you may like to enter a competition to win one of five signed copies.

   

     - While we're on the subject of books of the year, may I just shout about Madeline Miller's marvellous novel The Song of Achilles again - read about it here - and say that thanks to Madeline I've just discovered a great collection of portraits of writers at work.