Book Review: Howards End Is On The Landing

A book lover’s journey through a lifetime of reading is an inspiration

When book reviewer and author Susan Hill searched for one particular book on the many bookshelves of her home it sparked a year long exploration of her personal library.

Compiled over 60 years of reading, her extensive collection, muddled, uncatalogued, but rich in depth and breadth, is a mine of great, bad and forgotten authors.

Her journey through these books brings back many personal memories and Hill entwines these with authoritative accounts of writers’ works and lives, many of whom she has known.

At times Hill can be mumsy and she has patches of purple prose when writing about anything but books. But her insights into authors are excellent and her enthusiasm and love of literature inspires renewed interest in known writers and the urge to look up unknowns.

Thanks to Waterstone’s, Stevenage

4 stars