Gone fishing
Well, not quite that, but I will be travelling for the next two weeks and won’t be blogging. At least, now that I have an e-reader, I don’t have to ponder about which books to take. I can take ALL OF THEM. Au revoir, dear readers.
Sue Hepworth, writer of romcoms, is my guest
My writing life – in fact, my life generally – would be so much poorer without my friend and fellow-writer, Sue Hepworth. Since we first met around fifteen years ago, we have each read and commented on everything the other has written and been each other’s staunch supporters in the vicissitudes of the writing life. […]
A truly creepy novel: Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
This is a reread, too, but certainly not a comfort read. I wanted to see if Hilary Mantel’s 1988 novel is as sinister as I remembered – and it is. When cartographer Frances goes to Saudi Arabia to join her husband who is a surveyor on a building project, she doesn’t know what she is […]
The pleasure of rereading Michael Gilbert’s crime novels
There are times when I just don’t have the energy to tackle something new, and a return to old favourites is exactly what I need. Michael Gilbert is fitting the bill at the moment. To read his novels is to take a masterclass in crime fiction. He wrote a lot: over 400 short stories and […]
I wish I’d thought of that
‘”You used to meet Dad here, didn’t you?” I look around the room . . . “Elizabeth is missing,” I say. “When it was the Chophouse. For lunch.” “Her phone rings and rings.” “The Chophouse. Remember? Oh never mind.” Helen sighs. She’s doing a lot of that lately . . . I know what she […]
Singled Out
I’ve very much enjoyed Virginia Nicholson’s Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War. It is the kind of gossipy, anecdotal history that is very easy to read. Nicholson has done an enormous amount of research. The pages throng with remarkable women who managed to find meaning in life without a […]