Category: Musings

  • Lived Experience

    I read a newspaper article recently which was talking about the lived experience of writers. I wasn’t totally sure that I understood what they meant, so I read on. In essence it was saying that some publishers had been telling authors that unless they had lived through the subject matter of their novel, they should […]

  • Both sides of the bed

    There are piles of books on both sides of the bed. Mine is almost totally fiction with a little biography maybe. My husband’s is made up of science and computer journals, some mainly musical biography and a few art books. It is rare for a book to move from one side of the bed to […]

  • The very best place to read

    If there was a poll of such a thing, I think reading in bed, or a favourite armchair by a fire, or in the garden (with appropriate weather) would probably be the top choices. All of those are good but my personal favourite is reading on a train, preferably in a quiet zone and preferably […]

  • How do you read in bed?

    How do you read in bed? Sitting up properly with the pillow plumped behind you in a fairly civilised fashion or on your side with your elbow getting crinkled and a little numb before you turn to your other side? Or, do you lay on your back with your arms fairly straight and the book […]

  • Reading the classics …

    … well, being forced to actually. Wandering around my local Waterstones recently, I noticed a whole section on exam notes of various kinds: 11+ practice, SATs revision and various parts of the GCSE and A level English syllabi…syllabuses sounds more natural doesn’t it? Anyway, I had a look and found that all the literature was […]

  • Why do we read fiction?

    I have on more than one occasion talked to friends about this question, some of whom are committed fiction readers and others not. It has been an important part of my life for decades but I have never really thought about why I want to spend hours reading stories. There are many websites that wish […]

  • Chick Lit

    What does this term mean to you I wonder? To me it has a slightly derogatory nuance to it. When I researched a little, it became clear that it was applied to novels that were aimed at young women and mostly written by women, particularly during the 1990s and 2000s. Since then the term has […]

  • Language

    Very much enjoyed watching Simon Schama’s History of Now on television recently. Realised it truly was my ‘now’ as well. I had lived through the Falklands War, the Russian tanks rolling into Wenceslas Square in Prague, the Berlin Wall going up…and down and the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the USA. Amazing, now, to have […]