As always when he returned home at night, Maigret paused at the same place, just past the gas lamp, and looked up at the lit windows of his apartment. Every July since 2017, there has been one rainy, cold, miserable weekend that becomes my Maigret weekend. This past weekend was it! There is nothing sweeter … Continue reading Maigret and the Minister | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
Some images you record unconsciously, with the precision of a camera, and when you find them later in your memory, sometimes you rack your brains to recall where you saw them. Maigret Goes to School is my ninth Maigret. I'm well and truly hooked! This story sees Maigret leave Paris to help out with a … Continue reading Maigret Goes to School | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
The sunlight of late September filled the pale, formal streets between Portland Place and Manchester Square. The sky was a burning blue yet the still air was chill. The first point I wish to highlight about Margaret Elizabeth Jenkins are her birth and death dates - the 31st October 1905 and the 5th September 2010. … Continue reading The Tortoise and the Hare | Elizabeth Jenkins
This week sees us reading books with Simon @Stuck in a Book and Karen @Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings that were first published in 1954. And what a stellar year it was! Looking through the various online lists, I see that I have read and reviewed an impressive number of books from 1954 already. From children's fiction, … Continue reading The 1954 Club
"Ready ?""Ready.""Now ?""Soon.""Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?" First published on the 1st March 1954, Ray Bradbury's short story came to my attention today thanks to a chat on our local ABC radio morning show. One of the presenters remembered a story she read as a child about a … Continue reading All Summer in a Day | Ray Bradbury #USAshortstory
In 1991, I spent a lovely long weekend with my Welsh cousins in Pendoylan. One of the many tours we managed to fit into my brief visit, was an afternoon in Laugharne to wander around Dylan Thomas' boathouse and writing shed perched on the side of a hill above the River Taf. Growing up in … Continue reading Under Milk Wood: The Definitive Edition | Dylan Thomas #Dewithon
Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind" He was born in 1899 in Osaka, Japan and died April 1972. His work has been described as "lyrical, subtly-shaded prose" by Wikipedia. "The novel may be interpreted as a meditation … Continue reading The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
On Saturday night I went to the Opera House to watch the STC's production of Under Milk Wood. I confess I knew nothing about Milk Wood at all. Mr Books had studied and loved this book at school and still raves about the Richard Burton version over 25 years later. He suggested that I go … Continue reading Under Milk Wood | Dylan Thomas (theatre)
Time for a classic children's story. The Children of Green Knowe was first published in 1954. Lucy M Boston published this series of delightful stories about her old family home. I say delightful and mean it in an Enid Blyton, ye-olde-worlde charm kind of way. A story full of imagination, simple pleasures and family history. … Continue reading The Children of Green Knowe | Lucy M. Boston
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