The fall always provides an embarrassment of book riches, with hundreds of titles released throughout the season, many of them in this first week of September.
The world of ancient history and myth is full of references to cannibalism, drinking blood and sacrifice - and in some cultures these beliefs and fears live on!
From fast-paced spy thrillers and moving family sagas to dramatic reimaginings of historical epochs, we asked historians to tell us which new history books they have enjoyed the most in 2021
Hauntology, which is subtitled
Ghosts of Future Past, simply offers a lot of regurgitated and undigested material, which doesn’t evidence much understanding of original works on the subject by the likes of Mark Fisher which it draws heavily on. Whilst it is always good to see the books of Alan Garner, W.G. Sebald, Susan Cooper and Nigel Kneale’s TV films discussed there is little of any originality on offer here.
Tom Chivers works much harder with his research material, refining and reshaping it within a personal narrative of obsession and encounter as he explores overground and underground London in an attempt to map the city’s forgotten rivers.