Musings

I have read the suggestion that one should avoid reading newly published books and focus on those at least 10 years old. The premise being that if they […]

Having just read Margaret Forster’s book ‘Is there anything you want?’ (and written about it,) I have been thinking around this tricky question … and also wondering if […]

If a book provides me with a good story and also teaches me something, then that  is a 5 star rating. Fiction is of course just that; made […]

Matthew Parris in the Times wrote that some words have partners that they cling to. ‘Scantily’ is always followed by ‘clad’ … well, I think I agree with […]

I have visited Keat’s House in Hampstead, London but I didn’t know there was a similar place by the Spanish Steps in the middle of Rome. A delightful […]

I certainly didn’t intend to see any of the BBC’s strangulation of Ian Rankin’s Rebus programmes but I did, not once but twice, catch the last ten minutes […]

Going sideways from the previous musing, in amongst the media hype and TV adaptations of books by Sally Rooney, I was fascinated to see she had refused to […]

Why are there so many well-known and successful Irish writers, particularly over the last decade I pondered. In a recent (excellent) article I read about Colm Toibin, he […]

In Heffers bookshop in Cambridge a few days ago I was tempted by 2 large, heavy, new hardbacks. The first is this state of the nation novel by […]

Do you like reading aloud I wonder? Do you like listening to someone reading aloud? Many have quite strong feelings about this, one way or the other. I […]

At the end of the Radio 3 breakfast show, the presenter Petroc Trelawny finishes by saying Good Morning. It occurred to me that using those words to say […]

Have you noticed that if the stress is on the first syllable then the word is usually a noun. If the emphasis comes on the second syllable then […]

The date of the birth of James Joyce, strangely and nicely noted and commemorated this morning on the Radio 3 breakfast programme. They then played ‘Love’s Old Sweet […]

Authors not to read again(!): Marion Keyes Sally Rooney Emily Henry There have been very many times in my life when I have felt out of kilter with […]

I should have worked this one out for myself but I didn’t, I looked it up. Denticulated. There is the root and the clue at the beginning. Dent […]

I read an article about bookmarks and it started me thinking about my collection. I have to admit that I do turn down the pages of paperbacks, only […]

I went to the Royal Academy today to an exhibition of drawings by Impressionist artists. Part of the fun of going to an exhibition is people watching. Looking […]

Here it is : aleatoric, as in ‘an aleatoric cast of mind.’ Near enough it means random, coming as it does from the Latin alea meaning variously: dice, […]

The word is: frangible. I wonder how many of you are familiar with this word. Well, not me. I love finding a new word and it most frequently […]

Apparently, cockney rhyming slang is dead (brown bread) or at least taking its last breath. Rather sad if that is the case although I suspect some of it […]

A friend recently sent me a newspaper article about Louisa May Alcott, the author of  ‘Little Women.’ I would have been interested anyway but more particularly now as […]

It is very difficult to be original don’t you think? Original thought is exceedingly rare. It is not surprising that everything in one way or another is derivative […]

Who knew that Shakespeare Day was November 8th? Definitely not me. If asked I would have gone for 23rd April, his birthday and possibly also the date of […]

I saw a production of this play recently at my local theatre. It was unusual in that Shylock was played by a woman and the setting was Cable […]

I have enjoyed my teaching career but I might have also enjoyed other ways of earning a living. Careers advice at my school was abysmal. Nursing and the […]

This is not a name with which I was familiar until a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have read about it in several publications. Fitzcarraldo is […]

I remember listening in the staff room to somebody who said: ‘And there they were, all sat at their desks ready for the lesson.’  This sounded quite foreign […]

Over a cup of coffee I rather randomly looked at lists of 50 or 100 books that one ought to read before the end is nigh. There are […]

I have a friend who despises the word ‘nice’ and strongly encouraged the children she taught not to use it. I quite like it actually. It makes me […]

A Sunday Times article recently educated me about the author Danielle Steele, now in her mid seventies. She has sold over 800 million copies. I had to check […]

The joy is that I came home to find a new book waiting for me: The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. She is one of my favourite modern […]

If you are of a certain age then you might remember Frank Muir, he of a variety of Radio 4 quiz games and also Call My Bluff on […]

Is it OK to buy books simply because of the cover, or the colour, size or design? Bookstagram and Booktok  (and probably many other social media sites that […]

I wonder where you stand on this? I had been doing some proofreading and wanted the word ‘youngest’ changed to ‘younger.’ If you have 2 sons, then as […]

Happy Bloom’s Day, 16th June. It might be fun to be in Dublin today, drinking Guinness and eating oysters as that seems to be the tradition. So all […]

I went to a good U3A literature session recently but probably even better was the chat on my journey home. The driver talked about the books of Elif […]

Getting your book reviewed is the best sort of advertisement. Even if the reviewer is not greatly enamoured by your work there is always the case of all […]

Why would one write to an author I wonder. To ask questions maybe or to express strong opinions, positive or negative. Presumably some writers are overwhelmed with sackfuls […]

I am reading ‘Blood Knots’ by Luke Jennings and its appellation is ‘memoir.’ It made me think about how a memoir might differ from an autobiography. Looking into […]

A strange thing to be writing about I know. Endpapers are fairly obviously the paper at the end of a book (but also the beginning!) that connects the […]

Dad took me to our local pub in 1953, They had a television set, the first I’d ever see, To watch a Coronation! I knew it sounded grand, […]

I am fascinated by the way in which usage has the power to change language. Now I am old it is very noticeable how the English language has […]

It is indeed a frabjous day because waiting for me when I arrived home was a new Elly Griffiths book: Bleeding Heart Yard. This is the third story […]

I have been buying several books from Wob lately: World of Books. They are efficient, deliver quickly, don’t overpack. All good. On the bookmark that they include it […]

I don’t have a section for book talks, so this will have to be a musing. I spent the evening a few days ago listening to the author […]

So, what do we think about book clubs? They must basically be a ‘good thing’ I feel but going further into it maybe becomes a little complicated. The […]

Amongst all the heaviness of the Ukraine war, the cost of living crisis and the earthquake tragedy in Turkey and Syria, the prime minister took a couple of […]

As it is February and of course St Valentine’s Day, I thought I would share my favourite Shakespearean sonnet with you: Let me not to the marriage of […]

Obviously in crazy lockdown times, particularly the first one (how many were there?) I had swathes of empty time, much of which was filled with extra reading and […]

I read a newspaper article recently which was talking about the lived experience of writers. I wasn’t totally sure that I understood what they meant, so I read […]

There are piles of books on both sides of the bed. Mine is almost totally fiction with a little biography maybe. My husband’s is made up of science […]

If there was a poll of such a thing, I think reading in bed, or a favourite armchair by a fire, or in the garden (with appropriate weather) […]

How do you read in bed? Sitting up properly with the pillow plumped behind you in a fairly civilised fashion or on your side with your elbow getting […]

… well, being forced to actually. Wandering around my local Waterstones recently, I noticed a whole section on exam notes of various kinds: 11+ practice, SATs revision and […]

I have on more than one occasion talked to friends about this question, some of whom are committed fiction readers and others not. It has been an important […]

What does this term mean to you I wonder? To me it has a slightly derogatory nuance to it. When I researched a little, it became clear that […]

Very much enjoyed watching Simon Schama’s History of Now on television recently. Realised it truly was my ‘now’ as well. I had lived through the Falklands War, the […]