PD Smith

The last rose of the year from the garden…

A great year for sweet corn - today’s lunch fresh from the garden. Delicious!

Here are my two Guardian paperback picks for August!
The Green Ages by Annette Kehnel & Ootlin by Jenni Fagan.
Links to the reviews below. Enjoy! 🧵
#nonfiction #books📚

This month’s best paperbacks: Gabriel García Márquez, Craig Brown and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some great new paperbacks, from a posthumous novel to an absorbing account of how nationalism shaped a country

Beautifully written, with flashes of dark humour throughout what is a shocking, heartbreaking memoir, Ootlin tells the story of Fagan’s childhood in care. The winner of the 2025 Gordon Burn prize, this is an astonishing story of survival.

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

This month’s best paperbacks: Gabriel García Márquez, Craig Brown and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some great new paperbacks, from a posthumous novel to an absorbing account of how nationalism shaped a country

Kehnel’s wonderfully original study will transform your attitude towards the medieval period. She shows how sustainability was central to the medieval approach to life and that they “knew the limits of our planet better than we do now”. @profilebooks.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Here are my two Guardian paperback picks for August!
The Green Ages by Annette Kehnel & Ootlin by Jenni Fagan.
Links to the reviews below. Enjoy! 🧵
#nonfiction #books📚

Fresh from the garden this morning

Nice haul of French beans from the garden today.

Loved the Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road exhibition at the British Museum. Worth seeing!

www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/...

This month’s best paperbacks: Deborah Levy, David Nicholls and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some fantastic new paperbacks, from a Booker-shortlisted novel to a groundbreaking history of a continent

Jacobsen’s deeply researched book is a minute-by-minute account of how nuclear war could happen today. As gripping as any thriller, she shows the horrific reality of nuclear war and the threat it poses to the very survival of human life on our planet.

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

‘The English civilian population is the least hysterical in the world. They can take an awful pounding and still keep on planting lobelias.’

Raymond Chandler, in a letter written during the Battle of Britain.

‘The English civilian population is the least hysterical in the world. They can take an awful pounding and still keep on planting lobelias.’

Raymond Chandler, in a letter written during the Battle of Britain.

Here are my two Guardian paperback picks for July!
Nuclear War, by Annie Jacobsen & Into the Clear Blue Sky, by Rob Jackson. Both published by @penguinukbooks.bsky.social.
Links to the reviews below. Enjoy! 🧵
#nonfiction #books📚

This month’s best paperbacks: Deborah Levy, David Nicholls and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some fantastic new paperbacks, from a Booker-shortlisted novel to a groundbreaking history of a continent

Rob Jackson has a dream: to restore Earth’s atmosphere to pre-industrial greenhouse gas levels. In this important book, he makes a compelling case for methane removal & shows how change can and must happen, in order to reduce global temperatures.

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

This month’s best paperbacks: Deborah Levy, David Nicholls and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some fantastic new paperbacks, from a Booker-shortlisted novel to a groundbreaking history of a continent

Jacobsen’s deeply researched book is a minute-by-minute account of how nuclear war could happen today. As gripping as any thriller, she shows the horrific reality of nuclear war and the threat it poses to the very survival of human life on our planet.

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Here are my two Guardian paperback picks for July!
Nuclear War, by Annie Jacobsen & Into the Clear Blue Sky, by Rob Jackson. Both published by @penguinukbooks.bsky.social.
Links to the reviews below. Enjoy! 🧵
#nonfiction #books📚

This month’s best paperbacks: Hanif Kureishi, Alexei Navalny and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from moving memoirs to sequels of beloved novels

Historian of medicine, Helen King, tells the story of women’s bodies using four body parts. She draws on a lifetime of research on the subject & its implications for women. The result is a remarkably rich scientific & cultural survey. @profilebooks.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Just back from a visit to Paris, which is as beautiful and as good for the soul as ever. I’ve posted a few photographic impressions of its streets, buildings, art, people and parks on my Flickr page
www.flickr.com/photos/pdsmi...

Here are my two Guardian paperback picks for June!
Goodbye Globalization, by Elizabeth Braw & Immaculate Forms, by Helen King.
Links to the reviews below. Enjoy! 🧵
#nonfiction #books📚

Really fascinating - glad you liked the review!

Delighted to see Goodbye Globalization (now out in paperback) featured as one of @theguardian.com's paperback recommendations this month!

And what an insightful review by @pdsmith.bsky.social.

By the way, have read The City and the World? It might be something you could write about…

www.peterdsmith.com/archives/202...

This month’s best paperbacks: Hanif Kureishi, Alexei Navalny and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from moving memoirs to sequels of beloved novels

Historian of medicine, Helen King, tells the story of women’s bodies using four body parts. She draws on a lifetime of research on the subject & its implications for women. The result is a remarkably rich scientific & cultural survey. @profilebooks.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

This month’s best paperbacks: Hanif Kureishi, Alexei Navalny and more Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from moving memoirs to sequels of beloved novels

Braw’s timely study charts the rise of globalisation from the optimism of the late 1980s to the current realism. A pacy & human story, it weaves economics and history into a compelling geopolitical narrative of the last three decades. @yalebooks.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

Here are my two Guardian paperback picks for June!
Goodbye Globalization, by Elizabeth Braw & Immaculate Forms, by Helen King.
Links to the reviews below. Enjoy! 🧵
#nonfiction #books📚

Just back from a visit to Paris, which is as beautiful and as good for the soul as ever. I’ve posted a few photographic impressions of its streets, buildings, art, people and parks on my Flickr page
www.flickr.com/photos/pdsmi...

Paris

The Little Lion. Shop sign from 18th-century Paris, in the Carnavalet Museum

The Golden Sun. Shop sign from 18th-century Paris, in the Carnavalet Museum

Parisian life…