Riley, Gwendoline – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:47:38 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Riley, Gwendoline – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 The Palm House https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-palm-house/ Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=54631 From the Women's Prize-shortlisted author of First Love and My Phantoms comes a novel of enduring friendships and small mercies from one of the most acclaimed writers of her generation.]]> From the Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of First Love

‘The Palm House might be my favourite novel of 2026 so far . . . I wanted to go back to the beginning and start again‘ The Sunday Times

‘I love this book’ Sarah Perry

‘Outstandingly brilliant’ Claire-Louise Bennett

Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds, with long evenings spent huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, where they share office gossip, reflect on their teenage passions, and lament the state of the world.

Recently, though, Putnam has been harder to reach: he has lost his father, and the magazine to which he has dedicated his life has been hijacked by an insufferable new editor, Simon ‘call me Shove’ Halfpenny.

Laura has her own problems: with a prickly mother and a tricky past, and in a beautiful and indifferent city, her day-to-day life is precarious. But as Putnam starts to sink into despondency, she must try to bring him back.

A novel of enduring friendships and small mercies, The Palm House offers us Gwendoline Riley’s trademark keen observation and wit, and leaves us – somehow – with a curious sense of possibility.

PRAISE FOR GWENDOLINE RILEY

‘Riley’s prose is so electric, so alive with humour and insight and passion, that by the end you will want to stand up and cheer’ – Paul Murray, author of The Bee Sting

‘Gwendoline Riley is a genius’ – Evening Standard

‘So painful, so funny and acutely observed’ – David Nicholls, author of You Are Here

‘A writer of singular vision’ – The Guardian

]]> My Phantoms https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/my-phantoms-2/ Thu, 05 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=22508 **Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2022**A Book of the Year in the Observer, the Daily Telegraph, the Irish Times, the Guardian, the White Review, the Evening Standard, the Big Issue, the TLS, the Week and the New Statesman.From the Women’s Prize-Shortlisted author of First LoveHelen Grant has always been a mystery to her daughter. Twice-divorced, with few friends, her desire to join in is matched only by her need to stand apart. As Bridget looks back over their fractious relationship, she is forced to confront the cruelties inflicted on both sides.My Phantoms is an insightful, compelling and painfully funny account of a family strained to breaking point; a reckoning with the damage we do over the course of a life.

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