Category: Musings

  • Rewrites

    Just over a year ago I wrote in this column about originality and derivation, obviously particularly relating to books. A few days ago I read a Guardian article that looks at this subject from a slightly different angle. The appetite for Jane Austen seems to be insatiable. Several very good spin off books that I […]

  • 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 […]

  • The Strand Bookshop

    I was heading for my favourite bookshop in New York City; The Strand, in this case the smaller of the locations on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side. My son- in- law’s words were echoing in my ears: if we want to have good bookshops in our neighbourhood then we must use them. Indeed, […]

  • Validation

    It is always good to find someone who shares your own views about, well almost anything really, but inevitably I am thinking about books here. I have said before that I really don’t rate the writing of Sally Rooney and will certainly not be buying, or reading, her new book ‘Intermezzo’. The reviewer and critic […]

  • Being told what to read…

    I have read the suggestion that one should avoid reading newly published books and focus on those at least 10 years old. The premise being that if they are still around then, well, they must be worth reading. It is so expensive to publish a book that it is more and more common for print […]

  • What do I want in a story?

    Having just read Margaret Forster’s book ‘Is there anything you want?’ (and written about it,) I have been thinking around this tricky question … and also wondering if the answer has changed with age. There was a book I was reading recently that suddenly involved a situation in my life of which I didn’t want […]

  • Learning from Fiction

    If a book provides me with a good story and also teaches me something, then that  is a 5 star rating. Fiction is of course just that; made up, possibly without a shred of reality. However, most of my reading has a historical background and it is that that sends me to delve further. The […]

  • Clingy Words

    Matthew Parris in the Times wrote that some words have partners that they cling to. ‘Scantily’ is always followed by ‘clad’ … well, I think I agree with that. However, he goes on to say that ‘motley’ always goes with ‘crew.’ I’m not sure I’m with him there. I think I have spoken of a […]

  • Keat’s House

    I have visited Keat’s House in Hampstead, London but I didn’t know there was a similar place by the Spanish Steps in the middle of Rome. A delightful small house, modestly elegant, at the base of the steps, hidden in plain sight. Apart from anything else, this little museum is an oasis of calm and […]

  • Rebus

    I certainly didn’t intend to see any of the BBC’s strangulation of Ian Rankin’s Rebus programmes but I did, not once but twice, catch the last ten minutes of two episodes. Don’t be tempted by it. However skilled the actor, he is certainly not John Rebus. OM goodness the books are so,so much better and […]