With sufficient reading matter to keep me going for several months, I oughtn't to be looking at what is yet to be published, but I noticed a couple of books, due out in April and May respectively, which despite the reproachful piles I shall be very keen to read at the earliest opportunity.
Above is the gorgeous cover of A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book, a "vivid, rich and moving saga" set in Edwardian England and moving to Paris, Munich and the Somme, (the link there gives all the details). For all those of us who loved Possession, this book sounds like a must-read, don't you think?
To another very fine writer, and William Fiennes' second book (after the memorable The Snow Geese) is The Music Room
, "a tribute to place, memory and the permanence of love". This is another 'memoir' - for want of a better description - but this time concerning home (a seven hundred year-old moated castle) and family.
Are you anticipating any forthcoming publications? Simon S. certainly is!