Books

  • Review

Into the Water, review

There’s no doubt that Into the Water will sell a lot of copies. Like Paula Hawkins’ 2015 hit The Girl On the Train, this, her second thriller, is one that will appear on those “beach reads” round-ups and stick around on bestseller stands at airports for months to come. Then, just when even your friend who “doesn’t do books” has read it, the film will come out ­– the rights have already been sold – and it will start again, this time with a Hollywood A-Lister on the cover. But is it any good? Well, I won’t deny that I was semi-gripped. Not quite still-reading-it-on-the-Tube-escalator gripped, but sufficiently so that I eschewed company at lunchtime for a few days to finish it.

Book review: Mezzogiorno: Recipes from Southern Italy

Journey into southern Italy’s ‘kitchen of the poor’ with Calabrian-born chef Francesco Mazzei, who lifts the lid on pots and pans simmering with delights such as stuffed calamari and aubergine chocolate cake 

  • Review

Dying for Beginners review: It's a life-giving book

Former Independent journalist and editor of 'Question Time', Charlie Courtauld wrote a personal diary of his experience of having multiple sclerosis, which was published as a newspaper column and blog, before his death last year