Maggie O'Farrell

Farrell's last novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox was a wonderfully written piece of storytelling and her latest is even better. Again she tells two linked stories from the past and the present, and in The Hand That First Held Mine pulls off an astonishing series of emotional twists that stirs up our most primal fears. Like Daphne du Maurier, she understands the female subconscious perfectly and her new novel will leave you amazed at the dizzying speed at which you reached the last page. For once ‘unputdownable' is the accurate description.

Tickets: £8, £6 (C)