Books

King Charles III will be crowned the British monarch this weekend at the first Coronation in 70 years at Westminster Abbey. Yet if the UK had succession laws that skipped females like the Iron Throne in Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and Fire and Blood – as has …

GMB debate on ‘pledge of allegiance to the King’ for the coronation It was perhaps the nearest the steadfastly stoic Queen had ever come to a nervous breakdown. In July 1969, in the wake of the Investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales and a series of violent threats from …

Charlie Higson is the author of the official Young James Bond novels and has finally written an adventure about an adult 007. On His Majesty Secret’s Service is set two days before King Charles III’s Coronation and is released the same day, with Fleming’s spy having to save the new …

Half of the 2023 shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction is made up of debut novels from older writers – with the youngest of them aged 49. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris and Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks were all picked – in a blow …

Megan loves her life at the Tower (Image: steve reigate) Anne Boleyn, and Henry VIII’s other doomed wives, regularly traipse past Megan Clawson’s front door. That’s because the 22-year-old lives at the Tower of London, the 13th-century royal palace in the heart of the capital where traitors were once imprisoned …

Last night, Sunday, April 23, 2023, between 7pm and 8pm, marked World Book Night. This annual event encouraged readers of all ages to turn off their smartphones, turn the lights down low, and bury their heads in a book. Sadly, the official World Book Day website claims one in three …

Neil Lancaster’s bestselling books brilliantly tackle police corruption (Image: PA) An elite secret unit of highly trained investigators aimed at rooting out corrupt police and their criminal conspirators. Allegations of misconduct bedevilling a force. And a network of private messaging apps where officers trade shameful information. No, not the Metropolitan …

Manni and Reuben Coe write book together (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster) Manni Coe, 49, describes his younger brother Reuben, who has Down’s Syndrome, as “a heart on legs”. He says: “There is no malice in him; he is all soft edges.” When I ask Reuben, 39, to describe Manni, he is …

Life has been ab fab for Netflix thriller king and bestselling author Harlan Coben of late. First, actor and comedian Jennifer Saunders appeared in his Netflix series The Stranger – and now Joanna Lumley is filming his new eight-parter Fool Me Once. The 61-year-old novelist and screenwriter says: “Joanna is …

Young Bond author Charlie Higson is the author of what is his first ever adult 007 book. The novel, aptly titled On His Majesty’s Secret Service, is set for release on May 4, two days before the Coronation and actually begins its setting on that day. The official synopsis reads: …