Book guides by Simon Haisell

Discussion, resources, footnotes and tangents for the books I love

Hi, I’m Simon Haisell, the host of Footnotes & Tangents, a book group where we take our time to live inside great stories. My aim is to encourage people to read with more confidence, curiosity and creativity. I pick books I love and set a gentle pace. Then I write a weekly discussion post packed with resources, record a podcast version, and lead an inclusive, friendly discussion in the comments.

Read our welcome post, explore our current read-alongs, and subscribe here.

Book guides

Free

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (5 posts)

• The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell (9 posts)

• A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel (20 posts)

• The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (7 posts)

For paid subscribers

• Regeneration by Pat Barker (7 posts)

• The Children’s Book by AS Byatt (coming soon)

• Treacle Walker by Alan Garner (3 posts)

• The Inheritors by William Golding (4 posts)

• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (17 posts)

  • Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (12 posts)

  • The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (23 posts)

• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (13 posts)

• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (50 posts)