Independent Bookseller of the Month: Camden Lock Books, Old Street Station, London

Every month we feature a different bookshop – we ask them to tell us what makes them special and what they like most about what they do. This month it’s the turn of Camden Lock Books, located in Old Street Station in London.

Bookhugger sponsors YARNfest – celebrating story and storytelling

We are proud to announce that we are sponsoring the first YARNfest, a festival of storytelling that will take place in London between February 20th and 24th at The Book Club and the Queen of Hoxton, East London.

The January Competition [closed]

Win great new titles from Faber, Simon & Schuster, Canongate, Hodder & Stoughton and Gallic Books in January’s fabulous competition!

Read the first chapter of The Devlin Diary, by Christi Phillips

London, 1672: A vicious killer stalks the court of Charles II, inscribing his victims’ bodies with mysterious markings. Are these the random murders of a madman? The deadly consequence of a personal vendetta? Or the grisly result of a hidden conspiracy?

Catcher in the Rye author JD Salinger dies, aged 91

Reclusive novelist JD Salinger died of natural causes at his home.

Read full details on the BBC website

The Book Doctor is in the house

Bookhugger’s mystery medic is back to answer more of your cries for help – just what should you read next after you finish a book you have loved?

January Non-fiction Round-up

If you’re looking for a good read this January, let these books transport you – from the shores of South America to the Middle East during the Crusades; from journeys of self-discovery to journeys through the lives of some remarkable people; from Hollywood to family hell and back again.

David Peace on Occupied City

George Miller talks to David Peace about the background to and writing of his latest novel, the second in his Tokyo Trilogy, Occupied City, and we have clips of David Peace reading from the novel too.

January Reading Groups Round-up

If you’re looking for a new book for your reading group look no further – here are a selection of titles with discussion questions ready and waiting.

Andy Beckett on the 1970s

Andy Beckett’s new book When the Lights Went Out takes a fresh look at the 1970s, a much-maligned decade. Was it really so bad? The author, who writes for the Guardian, reveals more in conversation with George Miller.

Listen now

The Booklist – Winter Warmer

Curl up in front of the fire, and spend some time with a loner in the woods, his cabin insulated by his books; explore the Canadian Northwest with an anthropologist gone native; warm yourself with a wonderful tales from WWII and the Napoleonic Wars; then witness explorers pushing themselves to the limit, all from the comfort of your armchair!

Best of the Web: Inspector Pekkala

It is the time of the Great Terror. Inspector Pekkala – known as the Emerald Eye – was once the most famous detective in all Russia, the favourite of the Tsar. Now he is the prisoner of the men he once hunted.

January Contemporary Fiction Round-up

The best of this month’s exciting new releases, and new paperback editions from Canongate, Faber and Hodder & Stoughton.

Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst of Oxford University talks about Charles Dickens’ life at the time he started writing his classic Great Expectations, and the reason he started writing the book.

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Win a copy of Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey [closed]

Eddie Russett lives comfortably in a world where fortune, career and ultimate destiny are rigidly dictated by the colours you can see. Until he falls in love with Jane, and starts to question every aspect of the Rulebook.

Charles Darwin and the voyage of the Beagle

James A. Secord talks about the purpose of the famous voyage of the Beagle, on which the young Charles Darwin was exposed to many of the sights and experiences which led him to formulate his ground-breaking theories.

Listen now

Tim Bale on the Conservative Party

Tim Bale has published a major new assessment of the Conservative Party’s wilderness years which followed their removal of Margaret Thatcher from the leadership in 1990. It examines why it took the party so long to learn from its mistakes and also why change – when it did eventually come – happened so quickly.

Steven Asma’s monster gallery

George Miller talks to Stephen Asma about On Monsters, his wide-ranging cultural and conceptual history of monsters, and we have an exclusive gallery of illustrations from the book too.

Listen now

Read the first chapter of The Sun King Rises

Enjoy the first chapter of Jego Yves and Lepee Denis’s explosive historical thriller with Bookhugger.

Tobias Jones on The Salati Case

Tobias Jones introduces his first novel, set in the foggy northern city of Parma in winter time, and his detective Castagnetti, and suggests why Italy is hard to beat as a setting for crime fiction.

Broken your New Year’s Resolution? Here’s how to get back on track….

In this Bookhugger exclusive, the authors of You Need This Book to Get What You Want, Mark Palmer and Scott Solder, help you get your New Year’s Resolutions back on course.

Three questions for… Mary Beard

Mary Beard is professor of classics at Cambridge University. Last autumn she published the book of her blog A Don’s Life. In the book she reflects on the lot of a classics don at an elite university, the way in which the ancient world is portrayed in the media, the purpose of education and much else besides.