MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long

IN THIS collection of writings from women across the world, letter-writing is put to work to declare women’s solidarity, strength and resolve.
Edited by Elizabeth Filippouli, a journalist and founder of several networks to promote women’s leadership through partnerships, the book draws on “a global group of accomplished women,” made up of political activists, diplomats and business executives, with a smattering of royalty, writers and artists.
Each letter is a declaration addressed to someone admired, missed or hoped for in the future.

FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family

FIONA O'CONNOR recommends a biography that is a beautiful achievement and could stand as a manifesto for the power of subtlety in art

FIONA O’CONNOR is fascinated by a novel written from the perspective of a neurodivergent psychology student who falls in love

FIONA O’CONNOR steps warily through a novel that skewers many of the exposed flanks of the over-privileged