![A new normal A new normal](https://bookanista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Rose_Tremain_slider-290x290.jpg)
A new normal
Rose Tremain’s latest novel Islands of Mercy is a daring exploration of sanctuary and identity that ranges from the genteel tearooms of 19th-century Bath to the rainforests of Borneo, via the slums of Dublin and the non-conformist nightlife of Paris. She tells us what makes her tick through trying times. Where are you now? At...
![Survivor rage Survivor rage](https://bookanista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beat_the_Devil_feature.jpg)
Survivor rage
David Hare succumbed to Covid-19 last March, as the UK government continued to dither over following the rest of Europe into lockdown. He contracted it in the confines of a cramped Soho editing room, and was soon experiencing a shortage of breath followed by complex symptoms he describes as “kicking around like I’ve swallowed a...
![Kirstin Innes: Infinite variety Kirstin Innes: Infinite variety](https://bookanista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Kirstin_Innes_slider-290x290.jpg)
Kirstin Innes: Infinite variety
Scabby Queen is a Scottish version of the Old Maid card game in which “the queen goes round and round, and the object is to get rid of her – pass her on to the next one as quickly as you can” – and the person left with the queen is hit over the knuckles...
![Telling it straight Telling it straight](https://bookanista.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Sing_Backwards_feature.jpg)
Telling it straight
In dark times, it’s only natural for readers to seek an escape. So it’s no surprise that, to fill the tedium of society-wide lockdown in the darkest, saddest days I’ve witnessed since 9/11, many friends of mine have wiped their reading lists clean of brave and hard-hitting ‘literary’ fiction in favour of lighter genre fare....