Author: Susan Brice

  • The Lord of the Flies – William Golding

    Maybe it depends upon whether you are an optimist or a pessimist as to whether you follow RM Ballantyne’s portrayal in ‘The Coral Island’ of children castaway on a tropical island, not only surviving but thriving or the anarchic picture in William Golding’s ‘The Lord of the flies’ of lost boys becoming tribal and murderous. […]

  • The Land of Sweet Forever – Harper Lee

    Lots of writers, artists and composers are known by the general public for one work, think of Widor and his Toccata, Dukas and the Sorcerors Apprentice, Ravel and Bolero, Munch for his ghastly picture ‘The Scream,’ JD Salinger with ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and then there is Harper Lee. Harper Lee (1926-2016) is famous, hugely […]

  • Eleanor – Alice Loxton

    Some non-fiction is good now and then, and when I dip into it, it tends to be art, history or landscape based. Here is some history that I just stumbled on half price in Waterstones. Alice Loxton is a young historian and writer and indeed this book could only have been written by someone who […]

  • Half-priced pleasure

    I have bought 2 hardback books lately, chosen from the round display tables in Waterstones. I’m pleased with my purchases but they pose several questions. Both books were first published in 2025 and here they are already, vastly reduced, indeed literally half the original price. Do publishers almost plan for this eventuality? I would not […]

  • Birdcage Walk – Helen Dunmore

    At a recent U3A session that I go to about poetry, prose and plays, someone read a poem by Helen Dunmore. I hadn’t thought about this author for a long time but I knew I had  book of her poetry. I found it, enjoyed dipping into it and realised there was a poem at the […]

  • The Librarians

    I receive the Persephone Letter each month. Persephone being a bookshop in Bath. It is always interesting and informative: books, art, history, architecture. It tries to avoid politics but doesn’t always succeed! At the end of this letter (with an apology) there is a link to a programme about the current goings on in school […]

  • Both Sides of Tim Daunt

    …and the mixed fortunes of independent bookshops. The Sunday Times recently ran a lengthy article about the bookseller extraordinaire Tim Daunt. Having set up his own excellent bookshops, the most elegant of which is in Marylebone High Street, he became CEO of Waterstones and now also oversees the chain of Barnes and Noble in the […]

  • January 2026

    The Poisoned King – Katherine Rundell I have read the first of this series of books: Impossible Creatures, and have written about it on my blog: beyondtheairingcupboard.co.uk, and having read that, I was eager for the sequel. The narrative, the plot, the characterisation are all brilliant but there is so much more. The author is […]

  • The Charming Quirks Of Others – Isabel Dalhousie

    This is another in the series by Alexander McCall Smith and I went to this recently as an antidote to the many crime fiction books I had consumed in quick succession. You know that there will be no grisly deaths, accidental or intentional in this story. The author has even confessed that he doesn’t really […]

  • December 2025

    Ysenda is an interesting person. Her articles often appear in a variety of publications, including The Spectator, The Church Times and various newspapers. She has written nine books, all non-fiction until this offering, the most famous being ‘Terms and Conditions.’ This is about life in girls’ boarding schools 1939-1979 and it sold well. I went […]