A few minutes past midnight on Tuesday, 10 September 1940, an air raid struck Mecklenburgh Square. After a mini-reading slump in April, I needed something to capture my attention and my heart. Normally I would go to some cosy crime, or pick up a Jane Austen. Instead, this time, I found myself in the warm … Continue reading Square Haunting | Francesca Wade #GBRnonfiction
I once told you, Jeffers, about the time I met the devil on a train leaving Paris, and about how after that meeting the evil that usually lies undisturbed beneath the surface of things rose up and disgorged itself over every part of life. Second Place was my very first Rachel Cusk. Her work has … Continue reading Second Place | Rachel Cusk #GBRfiction
The performance at the heart of The Performance is a Samuel Beckett play, Happy Days. It was Beckett’s sixth play, written in response to his wife requesting something less depressing. I'm not sure he knew how to do that though. The play revolves around a central character, Winnie, a woman in her fifties. In Act … Continue reading The Performance | Claire Thomas #AWWfiction
My first illness was that one most common to the children of the poor...a bad education and, like the bite of a goanna, it was incurable and ran for years. Ethel Jane (Eve) Langley was born in Forbes on the 1st September 1904. After her father, Arthur died in 1915, her mother, Myra moved her … Continue reading The Pea-Pickers | Eve Langley #AWW
What a hoot! Outlawed by Anna North was the perfect summer holiday book. Light and easy to read, with an interesting premise and an uncomplicated storyline. And a great cover! The story opens in late 19th-century America, though not quite the Old West we know. In this version of our past, the Great Flu of … Continue reading Outlawed | Anna North #USAfiction
Independent Scottish publisher Canongate Books brings together some of the world’s finest writers, in the Myth series, each of whom has retold a myth from various cultures in a contemporary and memorable way. The project was conceived in 1999 by Jamie Byng, owner of Canongate, who hopes that 100 titles will eventually be published in the … Continue reading The Penelopiad | Margaret Atwood #CANnovella
The series, A Fairy Tale Revolution, consists of four picture books from Vintage Classics, that 'remix and revive' well-known fairy tales and give them a modern, feminist twist. Featuring four amazing UK authors - Jeanette Winterson, Kamila Shamsie, Malorie Blackman and Rebecca Solnit - flexing their authorial muscles in a new format.Like most fairy tales, however, they … Continue reading A Fairy Tale Revolution
Words are like stories ... They change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said. Many years ago, the year 2000 to be precise [I know this because], I read and loved Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness … Continue reading The Dictionary of Lost Words | Pip Williams #AWWfiction
What a fascinating premise!What a fascinating story!What an amazing story teller!Rodham: A Novel is hard to define, and even harder to classify or deconstruct. What is real and what is fiction is the thing that haunts you the whole time you're reading this story. At least it did for me.The idea of sliding doors, alternate … Continue reading Rodham: A Novel | Curtis Sittenfeld
Miss Brill is a short story by New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Athenaeum on 26 November 1920 and later included in The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922). I knew I wouldn't have the time or reading energy to tackle a novel published in 1920 for this week's 1920's Club with Kaggsy and … Continue reading Miss Brill | Katherine Mansfield #1920Club
I'm struggling to write reviews at the moment (my Covid Chronicles posts are the writing exception), but I am slowly reading through a few books. One that I've just finished is Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym. It was her very first book published in 1950. I was curious to see what I had to … Continue reading Excellent Women | Barbara Pym #ComfortRead
Given these weird and scary times we now live in, Angela Thirkell seems like the only sensible option! Her gentle social satire, quintessential British humour and lightness of touch in the face of adversity is not only comforting but inspiring. High Rising is the first book in a 29 book series, the Barsetshire Chronicles, a … Continue reading High Rising | Angela Thirkell #ComfortRead
I started reading perimenopause/menopause books back in 2015 after noticing changes to the way I was experiencing my body. Five years later, I'm still waiting. Still wondering, and wishing it was all over. Most of my friends seem to be there. Many of my friends didn't even know it was about to happen; it just … Continue reading The Feel Good Guide to Menopause by Dr Nicola Gates #AWW
I'm still trying to catch up on posts leftover from my magnificent Christmas reading binge. Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel by Bernardine Evaristo is the final one. It is certainly not the least though. In fact, it very nearly overtook The Yield as my favourite book for 2019. What stopped it from doing so? Mostly … Continue reading Girl, Woman, Other | Bernardine Evaristo #BookerWinner
My work has been a bit crazy this year. And during August and September it was hectic and full of changes. So a lot of the hype surrounding the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale passed me by. I saw some excited chattering on blogs, twitter and goodreads. I heard some of the discussion around it's … Continue reading The Testaments | Margaret Atwood
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