If Booker contenders aren't your usual reading matter - though by the look of it this year's longlist broadens what's seen as the typical scope of the prize - how about "an ebullient page-turner" of a historical novel?
The Darling Strumpet
The book is a first novel by Gillian Bagwell whose background is in the theatre, both on the acting and production/direction sides. She began researching Nell Gwynn as the subject of a one-woman show, but found that that format couldn't do justice to the richness of Nell's life, so a book was born. "Richly engaging", "bawdy and poignant", "thoroughly recommended" - a romp in Restoration London - and if you're wondering about the title, it's from "A Panegyrick Upon Nelly", Anonymous, 1681:
"She's now the darling strumpet of the crowd,
Forgets her state, and talks to them aloud,
Lays by her greatness and descends to prate
With those 'bove whom she's rais'd by wond'rous fate."
