Here is an index of books I have reviewed on LouReviews. I welcome titles on a range of topics and will happily accept either print or PDF copies. I regularly review for Methuen Drama and am also a NetGalley and GoodReads member, so you can reach me there.
Theatre
- Theatre blogging / Megan Vaughan
- Breaking into song: why you shouldn’t hate musicals / Adam Lenson
- Time to act / Simon Annand
- Musicals at the margins: genres, boundaries, canons / ed. Julie Lobalzo Wright & Martha Shearer
- Astonish me: first nights that changed the world / Dominic Drumgoole
- Round in circles: the story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel / Barry Kester
- Notes from the rehearsal room / Nancy Meckler
- Hamlet’s mirror / Elma Linz Kanefield
- Running the room / Rosemary Waugh
- Decolonizing the theatre space: a conversation / ed. Simelia Hodge-Dallaway with Kwame Kwei-Armah and Olivia Poglio-Nwabali
- Reviewing the situation – the British musical from Noel Coward to Lionel Bart / John Snelson
- Contemporary British musicals – out of the darkness / ed. Clare Chandler and Gus Gowland
- Feminist theatre then and now – celebrating 50 years / ed. Cheryl Robson
- Song of the season – outstanding Broadway songs since 1891 / Thomas Hischak
- James Graham: state of the nation playwright / Maryam Philpott
- How Sondheim Can Change Your Life / Richard Schoch
- Slow train coming – Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Countryand Broadway’s rebirth / Todd Almond
- If the song doesn’t work, change the dress – the illustrated memoirs of Broadway costume designer Patricia Zipprodt / with Arnold Wengrow
- Transmedia theatre plays / ed Caridad Svich
- A beginner’s guide to acting methods / directing theatre
- Song of the season / Thomas Hischak
- Contemporary British musicals: out of the darkness / ed Clare Chandler and Gus Gowland
- Broadway Nation / David Armstrong
- National Theatre Connections 2025
- Tiger, Tom & Tinkle / David Wood
- Notes from a working-class playwright / Leo Butler
- Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd – behind the bloody musical masterpiece / Rick Pender
- Offstage: The Pip Simmons Theatre Group 1974-86 / Sheila Burnett
- Trailblazers of Black British theatre / Stephen Bourne
- Curtain up! how to stage great youth productions / ed Charon Williams-Ros
- The Cambridge Footlights: a very British comedy institution / Robert Sellers
Film
- Send in the clowns: the yo-yo life of Ian Hendry / Gabriel Hershman
- Strolling player: the life and career of Albert Finney / Gabriel Hershman
- Black sheep: the authorised biography of Nicol Williamson / Gabriel Hershman
- Greatness and grief: an appreciation of Richard Burton / Gabriel Hershman
- Ian McShane in profile / Gary Wharton
- The extraordinary life of an ordinary man: a memoir / Paul Newman
- Vampire cinema: the first 100 years / Christopher Frayling
- Well-documented / Ian Haydn Smith
- Rita Tushingham in profile / Gary Wharton
- Sherlock Holmes – the man with a thousand faces / David McGregor
- The last decade of cinema / Scott Ryan
- Starring Joan Crawford / Samuel Garza Bernstein
- Achieving work-life balance and general well-being in the screen industry / Yolandi Franken
- Straight white men can’t dance / Addie Tsai
Television
- Avengerworld: The Avengers in our lives / ed. Alan Hayes
- With umbrella, scotch and cigarettes: an unauthorised guide / Richard McGinlay, Alan Hayes
- Biddy Baxter – the women who made Blue Peter / Richard Marson
- Star Trek – discovering the TV series / Tom Salinsky
- Nowhere to go but up: what Angela Lansbury can teach us about living a big life / Lily E Hirsch
- Box of delights: the story of BBC children’s television 1967-1997 / Richard Marson
Music
- A licence to rock and pop / James Fry
- Finding Kate / Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert
- 501 Essential Albums of the 90s / Gary Graff
- The Callas imprint: a centennial biography / Sophia Lambton
- Listen with Father / Caroline Sanderson
- Alan Hovhaness: unveiling one of the greatest composers of the 20th century / Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness
- When rock met hip-hop / Steven Blush
Biography/Memoir
- The illustrated Vivian Stanshall / Ki Longfellow-Stanshall
- My life with Michael: 10 years of Thriller Live! / Gary Lloyd
- A million miles from Broadway / Mel Atkey
- Elizabeth Taylor’s kiss / David Wood
- Musicals, marigolds and me / Paul Nicholas
- Key changes / Denis King
- Missing, a memoir / Cornelia Maude Spelman
- It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that zing! / Colin Copperfield
- The girl in the green jumper / Renske Mann
- George – a magpie memoir / Frieda Hughes
- Frank exchanges / David Wood
- Beyond the curtain: my life and Rocky Horror / Martin Fitzgibbon
- Over to you: letters between a father and son / John Berger and Yves Berger
- The hipster’s legacy / Lorraine Gibson Cohen
- The Callas imprint / Sophia Lambton
- Pan’s People: The Lee Ward story / Liane Drake
- The mother-daughter relationship makeover / Leslie and Lindsey Glass
- Queers in history / Keith Stern
Fiction & poetry
- The wacky man / Lyn G Farrell
- Death on the pier / Jamie West
- No more giants / Joaquina Ballard Howles
- Stop the world, I want to get off / Jacky Power
- A cat may look at a king / Ramsay Wood
- Dick Whittington / Petite Pantos
- White cat series / Simon Cole
- King / Chloë Fowler
- Love, camera, action / Noel Stark
- they were horrible cooks / Allison Whittenberg
- Regina of Warsaw / Geri Spieler
- A passion for passion / Alice Fraser
- Beyond boundaries / George Carter
- Now and then / Leigh Lawson
Sport
- Just a bus stop in Hounslow / Greville Waterman
Art & photography
- London unseen / Paul Scane
- London Underground symmetry & imperfections / Luke Agbaimoni
- Contrast: photography on the London Underground / Luke Agbaimoni
General non-fiction
- F*ck off, Chloe: surviving the OMGs and FMLs in your media career / Jeremy Murphy
- Medieval cats / Catherine Nappington
- Messages on Edwardian postcards / Freda Gittos
- Framing: the social art of influence / Mikael Klintman
- The author’s AI toolkit / Hank Quense
- Bows and ties / Kavya Thakrar
- A year of creative thinking / Jessica Swale
