Author: Susan Brice

  • March 2023

    In effect I met Bernard MacLaverty in front of the cash desk at Waterstones. Three of his books were there with one of those handwritten 4 sentence reviews by one of the booksellers. The shop wasn’t busy and I talked to the girl behind the counter for several minutes … and ended up buying the […]

  • The 3,000 Mile Garden

    This book has kept its place on my shelves for 3 decades and has never come close to being culled. I must have read it four or five times and it never disappoints. What more could you ask of a book? The 3,000 miles in question takes us from Eccleston Square in London to Cushing […]

  • Pam Ayres poem

    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, And although at six years old, the word was Hard to understand. But little kids like me, and others all Around the world, We saw the magic […]

  • Fun

    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 changed since my childhood. France has an institute whose only purpose is to preserve the French language as if it can be held in time and is […]

  • Frabjous day, callooh, callay

    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 about the detective Harbinder Kaur and I am hugely looking forward to reading it. The hardback edition was out last year but I decided to wait for […]

  • Not my usual reading

    A friend at church gave me ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ by Rebecca Skloot. She said that she had ended up with 2 copies and thought I would find it interesting reading. Glancing at the cover I thought it was a novel but it is definitely not. This is real life in all its […]

  • The Wife of Bath

    I studied this story, one part of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, for A level and I remember we were all surprised and more than a little uncomfortable with how bawdy the Wife of Bath was. We didn’t quite know how to deal with it! I have just been to an event in the Oxford Literary Festival […]

  • Vending machines

    I can’t remember the last time I used a vending machine. The joy of coffee flavoured powder and tepid water or the packet of crisps that you paid for but then gets stuck and requires you to kick the machine. However, if I lived near Exeter railway station then all would be different because they […]

  • Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes

    I didn’t mean to buy this book. I needed one as a gift. I chose the right book from the buy one get one half price table in Waterstones and obviously I then needed to buy the second book. Nothing in particular caught my eye until I saw the name Julian Barnes. Anything written by […]

  • Pre-loved

    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 says: ‘we love that you’ve just re-homed a book with us. We’re all about reducing waste and helping goods to be reused and re-loved again and again.’ […]