Clara Brennan: 4 books

Dead frogs and domestic savagery… Deep in the English countryside a son returns home after an eight-year absence. An arsonist teenager, a small village, and a thatcher who hates Thatcher collide under the looming presence of a defunct currency-paper mill. Bud writes a twisted love song to an impoverished...

Across the UK thousands of people are involved in protests and debates, sparked into action by the largest cuts to public spending since WWII – cuts which are the turning point of a generation, undermining the welfare state, higher education and the arts in one fell swoop....

Spine charts the explosive friendship between a ferocious, wise-cracking teenager and an elderly East End widow. Activist pensioner Glenda is hell-bent on leaving a political legacy and saving Amy from the Tory scrapheap because ‘there’s nothing more terrifying than a teenager with something...

‘I told the guy sometimes your arm around my neck felt like…a feather boa…and sometimes it felt like a big ol’ snake. Squeezing the life outta me.’ One transatlantic marriage. Three continents. Two wars. Boa is an acerbic, warm and honest account of a husband...