August 2026 Books

What’s new and good to read?

Dan Coombes has a look at what’s on offer from publishers in August and chooses Agrippa by Robert Harris; This Door of the Seas by Val McDermid and Jo Sharp; and Queen Mab by Emily McBride

Agrippa by Robert Harris

Robert Harris’ books of Ancient Rome aren’t just made-up tales with historical detail and the odd cameo from a well-known figure or two thrown in. For the best part of twenty years he’s been transforming real, authentic Roman history into top-notch political thrillers, from his award-winning Cicero trilogy to his latest, Agrippa. It’s the story of a Roman general’s rise through the ranks of Caesar’s armies before steering Rome to an entirely new destiny alongside Rome’s would-be new leader Octavius after Caesar goes and gets himself bumped off.

After a couple of millennia there might be a wee bit of poetic licence, but this is immersive stuff, as close to living through the trials and tribulations of the Roman Empire as it’s possible to get without being Russell Crowe. Harris’ eye for detail is every bit as astonishing as his ability to conjure gripping thrills and compelling characters out of two-thousand-year-old material and knock even the finest modern-day thrillers into a cocked galea.

Julius Caesar is dead, and the lives of two teenaged boys are about to be changed forever. One is Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir.

The other is Octavius’s closest friend, Agrippa. To claim Octavius’s inheritance, they must fight the giant figures of the Roman Empire – and, against all odds, they win. Octavius becomes the Emperor Augustus.

For twenty years, they rule the world together. Now Agrippa is fifty. Ailing and alone, betrayed by his wife’s infidelity, he takes refuge in his house on the Bay of Naples and begins to write his memoirs.

Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his earliest meetings with Julius Caesar, through the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the great naval battle of Actium and the endless wars to expand the empire, he describes how one man has dominated his life: the cunning, ruthless, unknowable Octavius. When it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?

Agrippa; Author Robert Harris

This Door of the Seas by Val McDermid and Jo Sharp

A trip back to the seventeenth century Americas to look at an obscure piece of Scottish history might not seem like the most obvious choice for some West London-based book recommendations, but that’s kind of the point of Val McDermid’s new novel: to shed light on something pivotal and incredibly important that shaped Scotland’s destiny along with the whole of the British Isles. Something you never knew you’d care about, find fascinating and enjoy thoroughly until one of the most beloved Scottish authors and her other half, the Geographer Royal of Scotland no less, got a hold of it.

The Darien Venture was the singular event at the end of the seventeenth century that fundamentally altered Scotland’s future. It took place on the other side of the world, amid the jungle-coastline at the junction between the continents of North and South America. And most of us know next to nothing about it.

Now it’s time to remedy that. Award-winning novelist Val McDermid and Geographer Royal for Scotland Jo Sharp unite in this revelatory novella to trace the story of Scotland’s only trading colony, which turned from a dream of prosperity to a nightmare that bankrupted an already impoverished nation and propelled it towards political union with England. Written as a series of letters home from expedition scientist Dr James Wallace to his wife Eliza and Sir Robert Sibbald, the first Geographer Royal, this epistolary tale offers a devastating account of the forces that doomed the endeavour and completely changed the history of the British Isles in the process.

This Door of the Seas; Authors Val McDermid and Jo Sharp

Queen Mab by Emily McBride

A cracking debut, part psychological nightmare, part kitchen sink drama, part not quite being sure whether or not your child or maybe even you yourself has at some point been replaced by a creature from dark ancient folklore, that sort of thing. A new mother retreats into her love of mythology and stories as she struggles with her newborn child and her own grip on reality as it begins to slip. There are so many elements to this story and they’re all juggled perfectly. Quite frankly annoying when someone’s this good on their first go, isn’t it?

There is a changeling in this story, but who is it? Madeleine, a promising grad student, is newly married when her baby daughter Maud arrives, perfect despite a traumatic labour. But just a few nights into their life, something seems amiss. Maud never stops crying.

Her hunger is insatiable. Her eyes glint with a kind of ancient mischief. Could Maud be a fairy child, swapped when she wasn’t paying attention? Is her real daughter elsewhere, dancing in the half-light with sprites and foxes? As her husband Tom continues with his day-to-day, working toward a promotion, Madeleine slips further into violent visions.

Panicked at her lack of maternal love and shut out from her old life, she turns to what she knows best, literature, for answers. The old myths and stories end in sorrow and bloodshed: after all, the fairies don’t just kidnap babies, they’re partial to young women too. Is Maud the changeling, or is it Madeleine? And if she’s been swapped, how will she find her way back?

Queen Mab; Author Emily McBride

Dan Coombes can be found most days working at Chiswick independent bookshop Bookcase.