31st July Newsletter
What’s On At Veranda
Welcome, welcome! So it turns out that Seymour Place Summer Socials are the best thing ever! Thanks to everyone who came along last night (Thursday 30th) and joined us for a cold beer or glass of wine. Thank you to all our friends on Seymour Place (I know you’re reading this!), and our neighbours, and new faces. Best way to spend a balmy London evening – our cups runneth over!
(Actually, our cups ranneth over a bit too much, so today will be spent cleaning up and sitting on the bench in sunglasses with a cappuccino…). Enjoy your weekends!
Shop News
This week’s visitors…
Visits this week from a couple of fantastic authors. Anna Pazos, whose headspinning memoir Killing The Nerve is never off our Veranda Picks shelf, stopped by on a brief visit from her hometown of Barcelona. We hosted Anna for an event in March, where she was joined by her book’s translators, Laura McGloughlin and Charlotte Coombe. This time around, she was flying solo but still great company and with some interesting work in the pipeline. Watch this space…
Also delighted to meet Amy Abdelnoor, whose debut novel Ever Land was published this month by Penguin. Alternating between past and present, and between two girls Safa and Dinah, this is a beautiful book telling a powerful story about the occupation of Palestine. Amy took the time to sign copies of her book – and the bench! – and to chat about her experience of the publishing process.
Booker Prize 2026
Whether you pay attention to literary prizes or not, there’s an undeniable buzz around this year’s Booker Longlist, announced this week, and we’ve been trying to put our finger on why that might be. Well, the 2026 judging panel is inspired – who wouldn’t want to listen in on a conversation between Mary Beard and Jarvis Cocker?? And while a few books on the list were to be expected, overall, there’s a sense of unpredictability which we think is really refreshing. Debut writers sit alongside former winners, there are themes of mortality and power, friendship, family and fantasy, and settings range from the Hebrides to Mexico City. If you want to explore the list, or try something new, call in. We’d love to hear your thoughts. For now, these are the books the Veranda team’s been talking about the most:
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Leo’s top 3 (actually, make that 4!)
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The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley. I’m so pleased that this book made the longlist because I’ve been talking about it since I read it in one slow and mesmerising gulp months ago. I’m still not sure what it’s ‘about’ but it’s the most poetic novel I’ve read this year, line by line. This is Gwendoline Riley’s seventh novel, and it’s time this long-overlooked writer won the Booker Prize
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Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman. One of those rare books that genuinely challenges the form of novel writing. Is it a novel? Is it a play? In truth, it’s a mash-up of both, but at the heart of it is a story of a middle-aged man who’s made some bad life choices and can’t seem to accept responsibility for them.
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Switzy by Emma Cline (pub. 10th Sept). Another truly original writer who surprises me with every book she writes. This is a sad and beautiful novel about a wealthy man on his way to Zurich to medically end his life. While he may not be a reliable narrator, this book is most compelling when we find ourselves in the grey areas of the story he chooses to tell about his life.
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The Disappearers by Marlon James. Honorary add-on for Marlon James’ new novel (pub. 3rd Sept). I’m reading it now, and it’s amazing. Don’t be deterred by the 700+ pages. I’m breezing through it!
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Emily’s Booker pick:
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John of John by Douglas Stuart. Oh, to be back in the capable hands of Douglas Stuart with his new novel. Set on the windswept Isle of Harris, this feels like Stuart’s most personal novel yet. A complex relationship between a father and a son told with Stuart’s beautiful and deceptive prose.
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Alison: I’m loving the leftfield choices on this year’s longlist, notably Rebecca Perry’s debut May We Feed the King, a glorious work of historical fiction-adjacent imagination featuring an obsessive curator and a reluctant monarch. I’m very bad at predictions, but I’d like to see that – and the following – progress to the shortlist in September:
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Black Bag by Luke Kennard. Delusional 30-something actor is cast in an unusual role by a mercurial psychology professor. The funniest book I’ve read in a very long time.
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The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams. Intriguing second novel from a really interesting writer, an experimental take on the campus novel and a love story, of sorts…
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All Them Dogs by Djamel White. Next on my list, I’m very excited to read this debut from 28-year-old Irish writer White. Set in the badlands of West Dublin, this is billed as a “fast-paced crime thriller with a psychosexual twist” – and who doesn’t need one of those on the bedside table??
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Now Booking
Book Club News
Leo’s next pick for his In Translation Book Club is The Anniversary by Andrea Bajani (tr. Geoffrey Brock). A razor-sharp account of family estrangement, this was the taboo-busting Strega-winning bestseller in Bajani’s native Italy. Leo has already proclaimed it one of his favourite novels of 2026, and had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea at our in-store event earlier this month. Plenty to discuss then! We hope you can join Leo on the 2nd September.
And Alison is launching a Non-Fiction Book Club, where there’ll be the chance to discuss a chosen book – and where it fits within the broader conversation of our day.
First up is Helen Lewis’s The Genius Myth, which attempts to unravel this widely-used word on a journey from Renaissance Florence to Silicon Valley. Along the way, she considers what modern society values in a genius, and whether our current understanding of ‘genius’ is distorting our concept of human creativity. Well-observed and highly readable – and if you’d like to join in, you have until the 23rd September to read it.
Our Recommended Reads
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
In search of more escapism this week, Leo has been reading this charming, gentle, yet surprisingly deep novel, originally published in 1922.
Seeking their own escape from a glum and wet April in England, four women of differing ages and backgrounds decide to pool their sources and rent a Medieval castle on the Italian Riviera for a month. On arrival, they find themselves in a dream-like world of fig trees, plum blossom and overflowing wisteria, but before long, the inevitable reflection and contemplation begin, which is where this novel becomes interesting. While holidays may take us to different places geographically, this is a story about 4 women who are searching for their individual rooms of their own, and even transformation, which is certainly not a word that would have been used much in th e‘just getting by‘ era of the 1920s!
The Past Pursues Us Like Detectives, Debt Collectors, Thieves by Juan Pablo Villalobos (tr. Daniel Hahn)
Emily‘s pick this week is a fast-paced, darkly comic ‘crime’ novel in which the narrator JP has returned to his small hometown in Mexico to look after his ailing parents. The novel begins with a drunk JP squaring up to his old sort-of childhood friend, Everado, and landing a lacklustre punch before heading home. When Everado turns up dead the next day, JP finds himself in the firing line for his murder. What follows is a frantic deep dive into drug-dealing, extortion and fraud within his ever-changing small town. Villalobos explores the feeling of being a foreigner in your own town and reflects on the complexities of the idea of what we call home and the stories we tell ourselves about the past. This witty book has something for everyone with its ability to blur genre lines.
What we’re loving this week…
Emily is thrilled to announce her best Vinted find of all time – a new t-shirt for Sonny emblazoned with EAT PASTA RUN FASTA. Never a truer statement if ever there was one! In fact, she’s now on the hunt for one for herself.
Leo loved Wham! Ten Days in China. Joyful Generation X nostalgia aside, this should remind everyone that George Michael was never just another pop star. Watch this, then read Sathnam Saghera’s excellent ‘revisionist history’ book: Tonight The Music Feels So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael. (Exclusive signed copies now in-store)
Alison enjoyed what might have been the sweatiest night of the year seeing Irish electro-punk band Chalk at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. High on energy, low on air-con, spent the whole weekend rehydrating.
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