The Oxford Literary Festival is a wondrous thing, maybe a little like Hay but no tents, mud or wellies. Instead you find yourself in the beautiful Sheldonian theatre, […]
I have just spent an evening at the Tabernacle in the depths of Notting Hill. The Tabernacle is a disused church which has been repurposed as a community […]
Reading (and hugely enjoying) The Memory Library by Kate Storey, (see Readings) the books used within the narrative did indeed take me back. I was inspired to try […]
The Sunday Times offered a review on a new book by Joseph O’Connor: The Ghosts of Rome and then Daunt’s bookshop advertised a talk with the author. I […]
I finished reading this book a few weeks ago but I have hesitated about writing about it. It’s difficult to say why, maybe because the distance the novel […]
This was the author’s first adult novel, published in 1977 and it was shortlisted for the Booker prize, not a bad start, but of course she had already […]
I try hard to avoid heavy, expensive hardback books but a round, wooden table artfully styled with small, beautifully produced hardbacks, well, that’s another matter … and very […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
‘I cannot believe you haven’t read this! Why haven’t you read it?’ Thus said my daughter to me, after discovering that I had not read Richard Osman’s huge […]
Whichever bookshop I am in, here or on my visit to New York City recently, I have been assaulted by huge displays of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. Not […]
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 […]
This was an interesting read, not quite an autobiography, maybe somewhere in between a memoir and a travelogue. Through familial contacts and a mixture of circumstance and serendipitous […]
Elif Shafak has a new book out: ‘There are rivers in the sky,’ and so she is absolutely everywhere. She obviously has a very good publicity agent as […]
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 […]
When I had read ‘Lessons’ by Ian McEwan I decided I had to read more by this acclaimed writer. ‘Enduring Love’ is a fascinating if rather disturbing 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 […]
Sometimes I like a reading break away from fiction and this book presented itself. I may have mentioned before that Petroc is my favourite Radio 3 presenter! His […]
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 […]
I like the feel of Bloomsbury, one of London’s many ‘villages.’ Every area of the city has its own distinct flavour and Bloomsbury is full of interesting learning […]
I have great admiration for Tracy Chevalier. In my opinion she is an accomplished writer. As with most people I think, the first novel of hers that I […]
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 […]
I have written about today’s riches of Irish writers, some to my taste and others definitely not but Maeve Binchy was writing of a different Ireland, somewhat contemporary […]
Oxford Brooke’s University holds the archive of Penguin books. It was fascinating to visit this and listen to the archivist talk about the history of the iconic and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Anita Shreve is one of those East Coast American writers who often seem to be facing out over the Atlantic, very, very taken with historical and political events […]
Most readers will be familiar with the novel Chocolat from about the year 2000 and the delightful film that followed later starring Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp and Judi […]
In St Alban’s Museum for the rest of the summer is a delightful exhibition about the history of Ladybird books. These books were an essential part of my […]
Going sideways from the previous musing, in amongst the media hype and TV adaptations of books by Sally Rooney, I was fascinated to see she had refused to […]
Why are there so many well-known and successful Irish writers, particularly over the last decade I pondered. In a recent (excellent) article I read about Colm Toibin, he […]
I have read several books by Salley Vickers including ‘The Cleaner of Chartres’, ‘Miss Garnet’s Angel’ and ‘Mr Golightly’s Holiday.’ I enjoyed them all: imaginative, well constructed stories. […]
I read this book immediately after reading ‘Hotel du Lac’ by Anita Brookner. The difference in style hits you quite full in the face and added to my […]
All of these were really impulse buys and 2 of the three were successful so that is pretty good I think. In Daunts beautiful bookshop in Marylebone High […]
Do you like reading aloud I wonder? Do you like listening to someone reading aloud? Many have quite strong feelings about this, one way or the other. I […]
I sometimes enjoy reading a book about books and book lovers. This is a wide church of course. There are very different members of this club. I came […]
Having just read Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince, I have been thinking about how many different ways there are that booklovers show that love. There are of course many […]
I first heard of this book, and indeed this writer, at a U3A session. Coincidentally the author was then a guest of Michael Berkeley on Radio 3s Private […]
It is always good to receive news from Slightly Foxed. The book that caught my eye this time was called ‘My Salinger Year’ written by Joanna Rakoff. It […]
At the end of the Radio 3 breakfast show, the presenter Petroc Trelawny finishes by saying Good Morning. It occurred to me that using those words to say […]
This is a minor Daphne du Maurier fest about 2 of her novels: Rebecca and Frenchman’s Creek. I will leave Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel for another […]
And now for something totally different. You may know the author Alan Garner from his children’s book ‘The Owl Service’ which was important to several generations and subsequently […]
Along with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women books and the Heidi stories, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild looms large in my childhood reading. Goodness knows how many times […]
The date of the birth of James Joyce, strangely and nicely noted and commemorated this morning on the Radio 3 breakfast programme. They then played ‘Love’s Old Sweet […]
This was a strange read but one that I am still thinking about sometime after finishing it. If I hadn’t been told otherwise I could have believed that […]
If you know anything about Stella Gibbons, then it is probably her first novel: Cold Comfort Farm. In this book Aunt Ada Doom famously saw ‘something nasty in […]
This book is apparently a follow up to a first publication venture called ‘The Secret Life of Cows’ which I have not read. I might though, because I […]
This is essentially a diary written by the author whilst living in London for a year, on what she calls a sabbatical from her marriage, left behind in […]
This is a small review for a small book, that is worth reading nevertheless. I came upon this little hard back whilst doing some clearing out and reorganising. […]
I read an article about bookmarks and it started me thinking about my collection. I have to admit that I do turn down the pages of paperbacks, only […]
I went to the Royal Academy today to an exhibition of drawings by Impressionist artists. Part of the fun of going to an exhibition is people watching. Looking […]
I did a little shopping in Daunts in London yesterday. I was about to write ‘a little gentle shopping’ but it really wasn’t gentle because the shop was […]
Here it is : aleatoric, as in ‘an aleatoric cast of mind.’ Near enough it means random, coming as it does from the Latin alea meaning variously: dice, […]
I enjoy reading books about the natural world, the countryside, the landscape etc and I very much enjoyed this one. It is however different in several ways. This […]
I had never heard of the poet George Barker but I was sent on a Barker odyssey recently by my favourite Sunday Times columnist India Knight. ‘Read Notes […]
During the long siege of Sarajevo between 1992 to 1996, a cellist stood at his apartment window. He looked down at the bakery on the opposite side of […]
Apparently, cockney rhyming slang is dead (brown bread) or at least taking its last breath. Rather sad if that is the case although I suspect some of it […]
A friend recently sent me a newspaper article about Louisa May Alcott, the author of ‘Little Women.’ I would have been interested anyway but more particularly now as […]
It is very difficult to be original don’t you think? Original thought is exceedingly rare. It is not surprising that everything in one way or another is derivative […]
Who knew that Shakespeare Day was November 8th? Definitely not me. If asked I would have gone for 23rd April, his birthday and possibly also the date of […]
This is a gentle book and an almost perfect one. I suppose it focuses on the extraordinary goings on of very ordinary people. The main character, Anna, tells […]
I have enjoyed my teaching career but I might have also enjoyed other ways of earning a living. Careers advice at my school was abysmal. Nursing and the […]
I won’t post anymore of these but I am delighted to find them in so many places, used and not vandalised. Cheering … and full of that nice word community.
I remember listening in the staff room to somebody who said: ‘And there they were, all sat at their desks ready for the lesson.’ This sounded quite foreign […]
You know when Amazon says: we think you’d like this one! Well, sometimes I ignore and refrain and well, other times I press the button. Evie Woods is […]
