Book of the month

  Virago Modern Classics Book Club September 2019 The Wedding by Dorothy West   This September we are celebrating the reissue of Dorothy West’s classic novel, The Wedding.    In her last novel, Dorothy West, an iconic member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class. With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy […]

Tonight’s date was the kind of disaster that makes people give up on finding love forever. For starters, I had eyeballed his height from his Tinder photos; I had guessed he was about six feet, maybe four inches taller than me. Instead, I arrived at the bar, Golden Years, to discover that he was approximately […]

  Virago Modern Classics Book Club August 2019 The Sleeping Beauty by Elizabeth Taylor Our book of the month this August is The Sleeping Beauty by Elizabeth Taylor.   Elizabeth Taylor was an English novelist and short-story writer, whom Antonia Fraser called ‘one of the most underrated writers of the 20th century’. The Sleeping Beauty, her sixth […]

Virago Modern Classics Book Club, November 2018 The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West   This November in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of Armistice we are reading The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. The soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him. His wife, Kitty, with her […]

Virago Modern Classics Book Club, September 2018 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston   This September we are reading Zora Neale Hurston’s classic: Their Eyes Were Watching God,  perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.     She was stretched on her […]

  Book of the Month: The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter Our Book of the month this July is Angela Carter’s brilliant The Magic Toyshop. One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother’s wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave the home of her childhood, she is sent to live […]

Book of the Month: Crewe Train by Rose Macaulay This April our book of the month is Rose Macaulay’s brilliant Crewe Train.  Denham Dobie has been brought up in Andorra by her father, a retired clergyman. On his death, she is snatched from this reclusive life and thrown into the social whirl of London by her sophisticated relatives. […]

Our Book of the Month for December is a childhood favourite: Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden. ‘A touching, utterly convincing book’ Jacqueline Wilson ‘I did a dreadful thing, the worst thing of my life, when I was twelve and a half years old, and nothing can change it’ It is wartime and Carrie and her […]

Our Book of the Month for October is Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner ‘The novel sharply undercuts its genteel appearance to reveal a dark and visceral heart… An elegantly enchanting tale that transcends its era’ – Observer Lolly Willowes is a twenty-eight-year-old spinster when her adored father dies, leaving her dependent upon her brothers and […]

Our book of the month for April is the mighty Son of the Morning by Mark Alder. The best way to introduce it is via an edited letter from Simon,our Associate Publisher for Gollancz, which he penned to our Geeks earlier in the year (who you’ll be hearing more from later in the month) to bring them to this epic read. The first chapter is below, and we’re be serializing it throughout the month with a giveaway to come.

Our book of the month for January is Wolves by Simon Ings; a novel already attracting attention for the award-winning cover design, which we publish tomorrow. Associate Publisher and the man you all know as @Gollancz, Simon Spanton, will tell you a little about the book below, and there’s an extract to download if you keep scrolling. Oh, […]

Our June book of the month is something a little bit different. Published by our sister imprint Indigo, Shadow and Bone is compelling, sweeping and epic– a perfect YA fantasy crossover. But don’t just take our word for it . . . “Mesmerizing . . . Bardugo’s setup is shiver-inducing, of the delicious variety. This […]

Our May book of the month is NOS4R2. This book is terrifying. Don’t believe us. . . let Gillian Redfearn tell you a little more about it.

Some books are too scary to read even with the lights on. Some are too scary to read even when you’re surrounded by people in the middle of the day.

This book gave me nightmares.

This book still makes me shiver when I see a Rolls Royce.

This book will under your skin, into your mind, and once it’s there it will never leave.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

And whatever you do, don’t get in the car . . .

We did warn you. It’s a very good thing that the days are getting longer, because you’ll need all the daylight you can get to read this book. Next week we’ll be bringing you a very special extract read by Joe Hill himself.

See you then!

It’s time for chapter four of our book of the month, Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins. Although the chapters are short, they are perfectly formed to deliver you one of our fine debuts… Chapter 4   A messenger was standing near the back exit of the Sviatopolk, white-faced, gripping his bicycle. Kantor dragged the machine out of […]

It’s time for chapter three of our book of the month, Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins. Although the chapters are short, they are perfectly formed to deliver you one of our fine debuts… Chapter three When Lom got back from placating Magadlovosk on the phone, Ziller was already in the office, writing up his report. Ziller […]