Leigh Lawson has embraced acting and poetry with the same determination that sustained Marie Lloyd, the music-hall queen whose memorabilia he collects, as Carla Passino discovers

THE toll of church bells was stifled by the winds. Sleet clawed my face as I pushed through the flurry. The orangery’s windows had shattered. Whichever way I turned, rattling, shaking trees bore down.

Isabella was in need of a husband – and her mother had one in her sights

A critic with ‘an almost devout passion for good poems’

The story begins in a bamboo forest. It’s ...

GH ’s books director Joanne Finney shares her pick of this month’s new hardback releases