Hilary Simmons
Hilary Simmons is a former Readings bookseller
Review — 29 Jan 2019
Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare
Novels with fragmented narratives are not for everyone – but with the rise of psychological thrillers such as Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, they’re becoming increasingly…
Review — 26 Jun 2017
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
From the second Frances walks into Melissa’s and Nick’s house, she notices signs of wealth, from a dark wooden bowl filled with ripe fruit to a Modigliani print hanging over…
Review — 26 Mar 2018
The Fortress by S.A. Jones
The Fortress has a fascinating premise. Alongside a world that appears the same as our own, there exists an all-female civilisation. Its native women are called the Vaik. They are…
Review — 26 Apr 2017
Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan
Already a runaway bestseller in its native France, Based on a True Story is unlike anything else you are likely to read this year. A taut, ferocious psychological thriller, it…
Review — 20 Aug 2017
How to Fall in Love with Anyone by Mandy Len Catron
A couple of years ago, an essay was published in the New York Times under the undeniably compelling headline, ‘To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This’. It outlined 36…
Review — 24 Jul 2017
The Party by Elizabeth Day
Usually when you read a book, you make up your mind about the main character fairly quickly, or at least about whether they’re basically good or bad. But that’s not…
Review — 29 May 2017
The Gulf by Anna Spargo-Ryan
This is a book that tears your heart out. At times you may even stop reading, and flinch, as if the words on the page could physically hurt you. Yet…
Review — 25 Jul 2016
Rebellious Daughters edited by Maria Katsonis and Lee Kofman
I firmly believe that short story collections are not meant to be read from front cover to back cover – they’re meant to be dipped in and out of at…
Review — 29 Feb 2016
The Long Run by Catriona Menzies-Pike
Catriona Menzies-Pike came late to running. Until she turned 30, she was known to friends and family as the person ‘least likely to run around the block’; a gin-addled bookworm…