This week we’re getting cosy with monsters - real monsters, fake monsters, nice monsters and maybe even a few loveable monsters. We find a twisted intimacy with the monster in the family in Deborah Forster’s debut novel. We rehabilitate a remarkable woman unjustly monstered by history. And with writer and thespian Nick Coyle we’ll find out how, if you’ve lost your groove, maybe all you need is a monster.

Deborah Forster, The Book of Emmett, Vintage - reviewed by Jay Fracaro

Nick Coyle, 'The Story of How I Got My Groove Back' - produced by Jay Fracaro and Benedict Taylor. Nick is one third of the theatre trio, Pig Island, and this story was first read at Penguin Plays Rough in July

Margaret Ball, Duchess of Aquitaine: a Novel of Eleanor, St Martins Griffin, and Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine, by the Wrath of God, Queen of England, Random House - reviewed by Sara Peel