Category: Bookends
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July 2023
There are now 5 Jackson Brodie novels written by Kate Atkinson whose literary fame began with ‘Behind The Scenes At The Museum’ in 1995. She has won many awards and indeed has had her work translated into the medium of television. I am definitely having a moment with her books. I have read (and loved) […]
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June 2023
As I walked through Marylebone tube station a large advertising poster caught my eye. A film starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. (Have you noticed the fashion over the last 10 years for long titles of novels? Some much longer than this one.) I sat on the tube […]
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May 2023
In 1989 the government introduced the National Curriculum for primary and secondary schools. In history it dictated what units should be taught. Thus I learnt (and taught) about the Indus Valley and the ancient civilisation of Benin, neither of which I had even heard of earlier. However, as far as British history went, most teachers […]
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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 […]
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February 2023
Some of you may remember that 2022 was a year when I decided I would read from home and not buy any new books. I did well, until October in my favourite bookshop in New York City when I seemed to forget my pledge or maybe I felt that being out of England meant that […]
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February 2020
I wonder how many of you received the book: ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ for Christmas? It was Waterstones book of the year and is a very curious publication, picked up by an editor at the Ebury Press from various postings on Instagram. Interesting I think how various digital media actually […]
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March 2020
Do you know Olive? Olive Kitteridge I am talking about, a book written by the east coast American writer Elizabeth Strout. Olive is not immediately a wholly likeable character but she is very real and as I went through the book I became increasingly sympathetic with her and her plight. Her plight being simply dealing […]
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April 2020
In the few weeks before I set off on the church pilgrimage, I enjoyed wondering about my reading for those ten days. It is fun to match your books to the place you are visiting and I had been thinking about something by Adele Geras maybe or From the Four Winds by Haim Sabato. Simon […]
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May 2020
I love books and I love reading so I suppose it is no surprise that I am also very fond of books that are about reading. Maybe it shows me that I am not alone and that other people are as passionate and well, yes, maybe obsessive about this pastime as I am and really […]