Category: Bookends
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June 2022
As a child, one thinks of truth as a completely black and white concept. Something is either true or it isn’t. As one gets older everything becomes more complicated and the black and white merge to very many shades of grey, more than 57, more even than on a Farrow and Ball paint card. The […]
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July 2022
Many times I have been taught that a well written short story is the pinnacle of literary achievement. On an intellectual level I can understand this. To structure a story with introduction, conflict, resolution and conclusion, and to do this within a few pages whilst also having a well conceived plot and some depth of […]
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August 2022
In the 1980s Terry Wogan had a very popular chat show on BBC 1. I remember one episode where he was interviewing the author Rosamunde Pilcher about her book The Shell Seekers. The book was an amazing and unexpected success, selling millions of copies around the world. Wogan asked the author how much money she […]
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September 2022
Where do you park in Cookham? I have been there to ponder upon the rather difficult art in the Stanley Spencer Gallery and I have sat in the sunshine by the river and had lunch at the Ferry Inn. But, goodness me, the parking! I suspect that Kenneth Grahame would not have been bothered by […]
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October 2022
It was a wet, cold Sunday afternoon in January and presumably my homework was done. I was looking for something to read and scanned along my parents’ rather meagre bookshelves. Picking something quite at random I retired to a corner of the sofa, as near as possible to the coal fire, and began. In no […]
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November 2022
It was some years ago now that I sat in the Piccadilly Theatre in London and laughed so much that my throat hurt. It would be reasonable to surmise that I had been watching a comedy performance of some sort but no! I was in fact listening to the author Alexander McCall Smith being interviewed […]
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December 2022
I have never been to Cyprus but I find I have childhood memories linked to that troubled island. Firstly, of my mother cooking Sunday lunch with the radio playing Family Favourites In the background, presented by Jean Metcalfe, wife of Cliff Michelmore. I remember love and good wishes winging their way to soldiers in many […]
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January 2023
Who, I wonder did you see yourself as: Meg, Jo, Beth or Amy? (My allegiance and empathy changed over the years with frequent re-readings.) If you are familiar with those names then you will have read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott at some point in your life. I have read it countless times, mostly […]