9th January Newsletter
What’s On At Veranda
We’re back! Happy New Year to all of you, we wish you a happy and healthy 2026!
After a good break over the Christmas period, we reopened the shop on Tuesday, and excitedly opened boxes of new releases. It’s been great to catch up with our friends and neighbours and we’re all looking forward to another year of reading, conversation, events and other delights. 2026 promises to be a busy year at Veranda and we don’t want you to miss out – call in at the shop, keep reading the newsletter, venture onto the website now and then. It feels great to be back!
Happy New Year (Of Reading)!
A government initiative designed to help the population enjoy themselves? We know what you’re thinking: either ‘sounds sus’, or ‘how much is that going to cost me’. But suspend your cynicism! The National Year of Reading is upon us, and unsurprisingly, we’re fully on board.
The Dept of Education is collaborating with the National Literacy Trust which, yes, does sound a bit ‘back to school’, but it’s worth taking a closer look. Research by the NLT in 2025 showed reading for pleasure among the under-18s to be at an all-time low. Less than 1 in 3 say they enjoy reading in their spare time, and we’ll all have our theories about why that might be the case.
And adults? Well, spare time is more of an issue, but what’s interesting about this campaign is that it’s emphasising pleasure – not reading more, or feeling guilty about the books you ‘should’ have read. No high- vs low-brow. Competitive reading, performative reading: not welcome in ‘26.
In his treatise on close reading, How To Read A Page, IA Richards reminds us that “We are all of us learning to read all the time”, and perhaps the National Year of Reading is an opportunity for all of us to check in with what we’re reading and why.
Pleasure is so subjective, and our energy levels, state of mind, or even just day of the week will all influence our reading choices. So call into the shop, or browse our website – we’d be happy to help you find your reading joy in 2026.
The symbiosis of books and screens…
We’re often asked, in the course of conversation, how we feel about the death of the novel. To which we’d say, in all sincerity – have you watched TV or been to the cinema lately?
Our screens are awash with adaptations – it’s estimated that around 50% (and in some years up to 65%) of mainstream cinema releases are based on novels. And discerning TV audiences will find much to enjoy on the BBC, Netflix and HBO. Furthermore, the expansion of global entertainment which has seen the enthusiastic embrace of Korean cinema, Scandi crime, and historical drama from Turkey has coincided with a sharp increase in sales of Translated Fiction.
Ultimately, the beauty is in the storytelling, and while movies and primetime TV grab the spotlight, novels remain timeless, and never more needed.
Adaptations to look out for this month:
- Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel has been adapted by Chloe Zhao and O’Farrell herself. In cinemas on the 9th January, the film stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal
- H Is For Hawk – Helen MacDonald’s award-winning memoir told of her grief at losing her father, and her taming of a hawk. Clare Foy plays Helen in this moving film, out on 23rd January
And later in the year: Wuthering Heights (Feb), The Odyssey (July), She Who Remains (Spring tbc)
Now Booking
February Events at the shop
We’re planning a full and exciting roster of events in 2026, and are delighted to announce the first, taking place in February.
On the 5th, we welcome Khalid Lyamlahy to the shop to launch his novel Venice Requiem, his first in translation (by eminent translator Ros Schwartz). In 2017, Gambian refugee Pateh Sabally drowned in Venice’s Grand Canal, while onlookers gathered, some of them shouting racial abuse. Lyamlahy’s narrator attempts to understand the sequence of events that led to this tragedy, and explores the potential of literature to rescue humanity.
Khalid will be interviewed by the award-winning writer Lisa St Aubin de Téran. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a wonderful discussion – come early for a glass of wine and a browse.
The following week, on the 12th February, we’re delighted to have Saleem Haddad coming in to talk about his new novel Floodlines. Saleem’s debut novel Guapa is something of a cult classic, and won the Polari Prize in 2017. His new work, a multi-generational saga based in part on his own family history look set to become a contemporary Iraqi classic, and we don’t want you to miss out – sign up via the website or call in at the shop to reserve your space.
Our Recommended Reads
The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler
Leo and Alison have been completely enthralled by this latest offering from the veteran New York Times reporter. We’re plunged into the NYC of the 80s, beset as it was by high-profile crime cases, the AIDS epidemics, crack cocaine and racial tension, all set against a backdrop of the emergence of a flashy new-money scene. The ‘gods’ in question range from Ed Koch to Trump and Giuliani, sitting squarely on the vengeful, merciless ‘Greek’ end of the deity spectrum. You’ll love this if you’re looking for a highly entertaining page-turner masquerading as non-fiction.
Good Girl by Aria Aber
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize last year, the release this week of the paperback edition has given us the excuse to introduce this stunning debut novel to even more readers. A coming-of-age story set in contemporary Berlin, we see Nila, the daughter of Afghan refugees, attempt to find herself in hardcore nightclubs, and the arms of a narcissistic older man. There is a darkness to this novel – the immigrant experience, rise of neo-nazism, the grief and shame specific to Nila’s passage to adulthood. But Aber’s lyrical prose elevates her work and the result is breathtaking.
What we’re loving this week…
Emily: This week I’ve been making good on my resolution to go to the cinema more, starting with the amazing and fast-paced Marty Supreme. A biopic of table tennis player, Marty Mauser, that has all sorts of twists and turns. I loved it!
New Years Day saw the return of The Traitors (non-celebs this time) which I’m already fully invested in and will be taking up most of my evenings for the whole of January. I’m also coveting all of Claudia Winkelman’s highland wardrobe!
On the subject of novels on screen, Leo went to see The Housemaid, the buzzy new adaptation of Freida McFadden’s top selling adult book of 2025. While he is never going to read the novel, this “ridiculous but highly watchable” film was a perfectly enjoyable way to escape London’s sub-zero temperature at the start of the week.
Alison saw Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s latest, Sentimental Value and found it utterly captivating. Stellan Skarsgård’s fading auteur returns to Oslo to persuade his stage actress daughter (Renate Reinsve) to star in his latest film. Flawed characters meet immaculate cinematography as Trier explores family dynamics and the realities of a creative life – set in a wildly photogenic house.
She also took a trip to Tate Britain to see Turner & Constable: Rivals & Originals, a staggering collection of paintings which invites comparison – reflecting the competitive art world of the 19th Century. We’re practically invited to choose between ‘poetry’ and ‘reality’, but maybe it’s enough, on a grey winter’s day to just lose yourself in the vanished world they so beautifully depict.
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