For People Who Devour Books

Book Reviews by
Mathew Lyons

From the August 2025 Issue

Waxing Lyrical

The Medieval Moon: A History of Haunting and Blessing

By Ayoush Lazikani

From the February 2025 Issue

They Singed the Sultan’s Beard

The Great Siege of Malta

By Marcus Bull

From the August 2024 Issue

Prophecies, Potions & Prayers

Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic

By Tabitha Stanmore

From the October 2023 Issue

Marginal Interests

From the July 2023 Issue

Between Bale & Bailiff

Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside

By Rebecca Smith

Shaping the Wild: Wisdom from a Welsh Hill Farm

By David Elias

From the October 2022 Issue

A Country Fit for a Queen

Tudor England: A History

By Lucy Wooding

From the July 2022 Issue

Cold Comforts

Landscapes of Silence: From Childhood to the Arctic

By Hugh Brody

From the April 2022 Issue

They Courted Trouble

The House of Dudley: The Fall of England’s Most Scandalous Family

By Joanne Paul

From the August 2021 Issue

Marketplace of the World

Antwerp: The Glory Years

By Michael Pye

From the April 2021 Issue

Symphony of a Thousand Millennia

The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth

By Michael Spitzer

The Life of Music: New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition

By Nicholas Kenyon

From the October 2020 Issue

Breaking the Spell

The History of Magic: From Alchemy to Witchcraft, from the Ice Age to the Present

By Chris Gosden

From the June 2020 Issue

Come Hell & High Water

Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail 1740–1840

By Stephen Taylor

From the December 2019 Issue

In Neptune’s Vast Dominions

Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill 1550–1800

By Margaret E Schotte