What I'm Reading Now

Dr James Inglis

Headteacher

From the acclaimed author of Kremlin Winter and Blood on the Snow, a dramatic and expertly researched account of an extraordinary moment in Russia’s recent history: the August Coup.

In the summer of 1991, a group of eight plotters came together to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachëv, then the president of the USSR. These ruthless conspirators, who occupied positions of high office, declared a state of emergency to restore stability through authoritarian rule. The reality turned out to be a shambolic failure which hastened the fall of the USSR and a pivotal shift from communism to capitalism.

Beginning with a minute-by-minute re-enactment of Gorbachëv’s capture in his holiday home in Crimea, Robert Service follows the plot from its inception to its humiliating collapse. The troubling side effects of Gorbachëv’s well-meant reforms in the Soviet Union – business fraud, government corruption, organized crime and interethnic conflict – increased exponentially, and a New Russia was born. Fathered by Boris Yeltsin, it brought lamentably less benefit to the Russian economy or its people than he had promised.

Linking the years from the coup itself to today’s Russia under Vladimir Putin, The August Coup is a thoroughly compelling and original chronicle of a moment that changed Russian and global politics forever.

Miss Meg Bone

Teacher

At sunrise, high in the Italian hills, a body is found on the steps of a beautiful private villa. On the body is a threatening note, signed by a mystery man.

Back at We Solve Murders HQ, Amy, Rosie and Steve leap at the chance to take on their first proper case. So what if their new client seems to have his own reasons for avoiding the police? All they need to do is uncover who left the note, and then find them. Simple.

But once they start digging, the suspects keep piling up: there’s Sweden’s most-wanted criminal, a canny ex-wife and a fierce business rival – yet the murderer keeps evading them. And as the trio chase a villain through the shadows, danger travels closer to home . . .

Between Italy and Palm Springs, via Barcelona and Steve’s village pub, can the team catch an elusive killer who knows EXACTLY where to hide?

Miss Molly Churchward

Teacher

Thirteen years. Three women. One annual sleepover.

13 February 2013. Alicia, Marnie and Hannah have their first Galentine’s Day sleepover. They’re eighteen, single, and the world is at their feet. Soon they’ll go their separate ways after college, but they promise that every year, they’ll have their sleepover.

13 February 2026. There are only two friends at the annual sleepover. Their friendships have been tested by life, by partying, breakdowns, and even by pregnancies. Are their best Galentine’s Days now behind them?

Galentine’s Day is a love letter to female friendship, that celebrates messiness, real relationships, and growing up together.