‘Fantastic! The central character is a stroke of genius – an artist of war and death – and one that I can understand and relate to personally … Sam fully realises there is something selfish in her being an artist: she isn’t there to help the dead and dying, she is there to photograph them. Over and over again I came across passages that were so true that I was punching the air … Hotel Arcadia is the ultimate nail-biting thriller … It is an insightful and shocking account of the trauma of a terrorist attack’

Edward Wilson, author of The Midnight Swimmer, The Envoy, The Darkling Spy, River in May and The Whitehall Mandarin on Hotel Arcadia. Get your copy of Hotel Arcadia by Sunny Singh here.

‘Sarah Boseley’s review of Doctors Dissected in the Guardian is interesting but rather partisan. Doctors are human beings prone to all sorts of problems, which inflict most of their patients. That, in itself, is reassuring since they are likely to understand the needs and the psychological effect that disease produces in most of us. Read the book and find out its uniqueness, as it tackles a subject rarely discussed. You will certainly be much the wiser’

Naim Attallah on the Guardian review of Doctors Dissected by Martin Scurr and Jane Haynes. Read the full review here and get your copy of the book here today.

Teresa Waugh discusses her feelings on seeing the treasure-filled Clandon Park destroyed by fire. Read her article My Childhood Aladdin’s Cave is Gone here. A Long Hot Unholy Summer by Teresa Waugh is available now. Get your copy here today!

‘Mr George Zakhem, the entrepreneur and philanthropist, has written a memoir which proves that success is the by-product of vision and hard work. His motto is the title of the book – Men Who Dream Can Do… – out now in paperback. Read it and find out for yourselves why great men are motivated by aspiration and a willpower that shapes their lives incessantly to much higher horizons’

Naim Attallah on Men Who Dream Can Do… by George Zakhem. Get your copy here today!

‘Hotel Arcadia is a powerful literary piece which is well-researched, engaging and emotional. This is edge of your seat stuff and is difficult to put down’

Natalie Gormally reviews Hotel Arcadia by Sunny Singh for Words of Colour. Read the full review here and get your copy of the book here.

‘Every friend to whom I gave the book over the years could not put it down. They were gripped, enchanted by its hypnotic power in keeping the sexual tension going until the last page. No one could explain its mysterious hold on the mind of the reader’

Naim Attallah names The Grand Vizier of the Night by Catherine Hermary-Vieille our book of the week. Get your copy here today!

‘After three colourful hours in his company, it’s clear that a larger light will go out when eventually Sewell leaves us – he’s just too big a character not to miss’

Brian Sewell gives Matt Warren from The Lady a beautiful and heartfelt interview. Get your copy of the book here today!

‘Hotel Arcadia is a character-driven thriller filled with a violence that we hope never to meet face to face, but most of all it is a window into other lives which provides a reflection into our own. If Sam and Abhi make it out alive they will have changed, more deeply conscious of the wounds they have received and inflicted and more able to heal both. Prepare to enter the hotel of your dreams to live out a nightmare, but if you make it out alive will you be the same?’

Live Many Lives blog reviews Hotel Arcadia by Sunny Singh. Get your copy of Hotel Arcadia here today!

‘Doctors Dissected provides valuable and startling insights into how doctors think. But the book is more of a philosophy, a wide-ranging meditation upon the meaning of medicine and what we are losing in a target-driven NHS. The doctor and columnist Martin Scurr, and the psychotherapist Jane Haynes, have conducted lengthy interviews with doctors, mostly GPs, about why they went into medicine, how they cope with making what can be very lonely decisions, and how, in some cases, they have dealt with their own illnesses (usually not well).

This is a deeply human, searching book, whose interviews roam far and wide in response to the life story of each doctor. Most of those interviewed are humble about what they do. “To become a patient is to fall into one of the most vulnerable states there is,” says one. Another believes that “being a doctor provides a very privileged way into suffering”.

The book is etched with the pain and regret of highly trained professionals who no longer feel able to give the kind of care they would like. Some have left the NHS for private practice, because of the bureaucracy and the inability to give continuity of care. The book claims that most GPs have only about 24 hours of patient contact time a week: the rest is spent in administration and box-ticking.

The most powerful sections are by Scurr. He seems to be one of those old-fashioned family doctors we all wish we had: the kind who will wake up in the night and write a note about a patient to check the next day. A specialist in end-of-life care, who was the first Medical Director of St John’s Hospice, he writes forcefully about the importance of knowing someone’s medical history, and being intimately familiar with the patient. “There is little use to the examination,” he says, “if a different doctor undertakes it each time.” A different doctor will not be able to tell what has changed. Nor will a different doctor have the confidence and trust of the patient that is so vital.

The upsurge of homeopathy and complementary medicine, Scurr believes, reflects our deep hunger for “quality time, a listening ear, care and sympathy from someone who they believe to be professional, skilled and committed”. In today’s NHS, the ending of GPs’ out-of-hours responsibilities means their “duty of care will end with the appointment of a locum”. He argues that there should be “incentives for doctors who care for their own patients and families and who personally know their histories”. Amen to that.’

Get your copy of the book here!

‘Writing keeps me sane because it helps me to forget. Kindly editors send me books to review, and The White Umbrella, my first children’s book, saved my sanity when I was being roasted by radiotherapy’

The Observer interviews Brian Sewell for its This Much I Know feature. The White Umbrella by Brian Sewell is available now. Get your copy today!

‘Not since Anna Sewell’s anthropomorphic novel of 1877, Black Beauty, a passionate plea for the good treatment of working animals narrated from the standpoint of a horse, has there been a novel on the side of animals written with such conviction. The nineteenth century Sewell’s came about, perhaps, from the physical disability following an accident in childhood that made her dependent on horses and thus deeply appreciative of their qualities. The genesis of our Sewell’s heartfelt story is apparently a real life encounter with a suffering donkey that he was not able to save. That donkey remained on his conscience… A world of interest and opportunities for exploration is unfolded in a friendly, unpatronising, chatty narrative that will empower as well as delight’

Books for Keeps gives a fantastic review of The White Umbrella by Brian Sewell and awards it five stars. Read the full review here and get your copy of the book here today!