"Full of the fecundity of life"

If you're in need of a lockdown pick-me-up - and let's face it, who isn't? - you couldn't do any better than Benjamin Myers' The Offing. A stark contrast to his equally brilliant previous novel The Gallows Pole (a gripping, bloody tale of criminality and rebellion), the book is a bracing, uplifting, perfectly formed summer read - and I'm not just saying that because he had some kind words for my Buzz review, honest...