Wednesday 15th May | 1:30pm - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 

Wilde's only novel, first published in 1890, is a brilliantly designed puzzle, intended to tease conventional minds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art, life, and consequence. From its provocative Preface, challenging the reader to believe in 'art for art's sake', to its sensational conclusion, the story self-consciously experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design.

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Friday 31st May | 11am - The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

August 30, 1975. The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence.

That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect.

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Wednesday 12th June | 1:30pm - The Mortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells – taken without her knowledge – became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until more than twenty years after her death, with devastating consequences...

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Friday 28th June | 11am - The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison

 

England, 31st August 1939: the world is on the brink of war. As Hitler prepares to invade Poland, thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the impending Blitz. Torn from her mother, eight-year-old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large Yorkshire estate which has been opened up to evacuees by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, an enigmatic childless couple. Soon Anna gets drawn into their unravelling relationship, seeing things that are not meant for her eyes - and finding herself part-witness and part-accomplice to a love affair, with unforeseen consequences.

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Wednesday 10th July | 1:30pm - The Feast by Margaret Kennedy

Set in Cornwall, the novel revolves round a group of eccentric guests at the Pendizack Hotel. One knows from the beginning that the hotel will be buried under a landslide but how, why and who will survive is the Christie-like mystery. 

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Friday 26th July | 11am - Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain

Hubert Larnaudie invites some fellow residents of his Parisian apartment building to drink an exceptional bottle of 1954 Beaujolais, he has no idea of its unusual properties. The following morning, Hubert finds himself waking up in 1950s Paris, as does antique restorer Magalie, cocktail maker Julien and Airbnb tenant Bob from Milwaukee, on his first trip to Europe. 

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Wednesday 14th August | 1:30pm - Ordinary People by Diana Evans

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 this novel is about two mixed-race couples who find themselves at a moment of reckoning. Set in London to an exhilarating soundtrack this is an intimate study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, friendship and ageing, and the fragile architecture of love. 

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Friday 23rd Aug | 11am - Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

Set in Brooklyn, it charts the lives of a privileged wasp family as they navigate love, life and family pressures.  At times very funny, it also gives a wry insight into the motives of private donors to the arts.