Author: Susan Brice

  • Into The London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City – Edited by Elizabeth Dearnley

    On a lovely London Day just before Christmas we were killing time in Waterstones Piccadilly before going to see a matinee of The Mousetrap. Unusually for me, we found ourselves on the sci-fi and horror floor. Not my natural home but with books it’s always good to be open minded. I was drawn to a […]

  • Raising Hare – Chloe Dalton

    When I was a teenager in West Somerset, my father would drive me to the school bus stop each morning, about a mile away. During March and April we were frequently alarmingly late…and it was a logistical nightmare if I missed the bus! The reason for our tardiness was that we were watching hares from […]

  • By Any Other Name – Jodi Picoult

    It is the well-known title for many a university thesis or dissertation: Did Shakespeare write the works that are today attributed to him? And, of course, if he didn’t then who did? I will declare my personal position before we go any further: I really don’t care that much. I am very fond of some […]

  • Two Women in Rome – Elizabeth Buchan

    I asked some time ago: what book should I have taken on my visit to Rome as I read ‘A Room with a View’ whilst in Florence. Well, I think I have answered my own question, I should have had ‘Two women in Rome’ with me by Elizabeth Buchan. It would have been perfect I […]

  • December 2024

    Daunts Bookshop sends me an email each week with their top book choices. Usually, I can refrain but occasionally I press the buttons, as happened this time. This year anything with Florence in the title was going to attract me as I was fortunate enough to visit the ‘Flowering City’ in June. The beautifully designed […]

  • Stepping through the wardrobe

    This is neither a bookshop nor a library … but a book walk. I was recently in Oxford for a walking tour which was about the centre of the city and the university but focused mainly on the authors CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. The guide was incredibly knowledgeable and the whole visit was immensely […]

  • The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles

    For the first time ever I found a book I wanted in Waterstone’s bargain box. Hardback, heavy, 500 pages and costing £3.00. This is the second Amor Towles book I have read, The Gentleman in Moscow being the first. I fell in love, totally, with that novel but this was utterly different. It is a […]

  • November 2024

    Are you a Janeite I wonder? By this I mean do you love and reread the small cache of six novels by Jane Austen. Janeite is rather an ugly word I think, that doesn’t sit well with the beautiful writing of the author but it is a term that is all over the internet. There […]

  • Angels of Mud – Vanessa Nicolson

    The art history based introduction to the book I have just read: Florence- Ordeal by Water. Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, was written by Vanessa Nicolson and was very informative. The colophon gave further details of both writers and said that Vanessa Nicolson lived in Sissinghurst and London. At that point I suddenly thought oh right, those […]

  • Fine, absolutely fine!

    I wonder what nuances you feel this word has? It became the subject of a protracted discussion over breakfast in my daughter’s NYC apartment recently. It was all about orange juice! We had commented on the deliciousness of the freshly squeezed juice in the hotel restaurant. I went on to say that although not freshly […]