After reviewing Claiming T-Mo for nbmagazine.co.uk and commenting that Eugen Bacon’s “eloquent, elegant and lyrical prose gripped me from the very first sentence of this immensely passionate, moving and thought-provoking story, and it continued to do so until I closed the final page”, Linda Hepworth was keen to find out more about Eugen’s world building and character development:

After reviewing Jem Tugwell’s debut novel, Proximity, for nbmagazine.co.uk and finding it to be “an extraordinary book … [that] functions on a couple of levels: as a crime thriller with a deeply delicious twist and as a chilling indictment of how far our dependence on technology can intrude in an all-encompassing manner upon our lives”, Gill Chedgey was keen to find out more from Jem about the inspiration for Proximity and its characters.

Many words and phrases that are now familiar in our day-to-day world were first written in 1984: Big Brother, Room 101, doublethink, falsespeak, thought police and telescreens (watching our every move and word), but they were science fiction in 1949 when the novel was first published. Now, in a world characterised by artificial intelligence and social media distortions of the truth, are we in 2019 seeing the culmination of Orwell’s worst fears?

After reading and reviewing The Blue and finding it to be “a fast-paced and highly engaging historical thriller packed with period detail and peopled with characters that the reader really grows to care about”, Erin Britton was thrilled to have the opportunity to ask author Nancy Bilyeau about the book, its characters and the untapped potential of porcelain-based combat...

19 debuts to look out for in 2019

NB’s Alice Beazer speaks to NB99’s guest editor to find out more about her exciting career in the publishing industry; running an award-winning bookshop, directing the Booksellers Association and marketing the Harry Potter books.