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Christmas Gift Guide Christmas is fast approaching, and at The Willoughby Book Club we're excited for the festive season! The Christmas tree is up, the office is decorated, and the Santa hats are firmly on our heads as the book elves select titles for you and your loved ones! If you're feeling overwhelmed by all the gifting options out there, we invite you to make yourself a lovely cuppa, have a sit down, take a well-earned deep breath, and explore some of the gorgeous gifts available from the Willoughby Book Club this Christmas.  For the person who loves reading, but you don't know what...

Kala by Colin Walsh I read Kala on the glowing recommendation of Marianne and it didn't disappoint! It's a literary thriller, a coming-of-age narrative, and a brooding noir, as well as an absolute masterclass in characterisation. There's beautiful, thoughtful prose, but also an investigation into the underbelly of society in the small, fictional, Irish town of Kinlough. Following the Mush, Helen and Joe, childhood friends, are confronted with the discovery of the body of their friend who went missing twenty years previously. Going back and forth in time from the present to that fateful summer so long ago, the secrets...

As half term has arrived, we thought we'd read outside our normal parameters and dive into some children's reads for a change. We all loved reading as youngsters and couldn't wait to spend a few hours with some of the books we have on our office bookshelves, to see if we could appreciate them just as much as adults. Spoiler: we were not disappointed! The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge The 'Beast' series by Chris Judge is a personal favourite of mine. Every book is always funny and well written. It's very enjoyable for both the reader and the child being read to! It's...

Do you ever think about the spooky, creepy or downright strange books you read as a young child? The ones that kept you up, with your blanket and torch, tentatively turning the pages out of intrigue and fear? Children's literature is rife with the weird and wonderful, the heroes memorable and the baddies unforgettable!  Here at Willoughby HQ, we've been recalling the scary or spooky books that we loved reading most, ranging wildly from Roald Dahl and the Goosebumps series to the books we were checking out of our school library, but that definitely felt too old and scary to...