Ten books that have stayed with me
A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Daniella, tagged me on Facebook. “List 10 books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take more than a few minutes, and don’t think too hard. It is not about the ‘right’ book or great work of literature, just ones that have affected you in some […]
What people are reading on the train
Or. at least, what they were reading on the 17.34 from Victoria to Peckham yesterday. The young man sitting next to me was reading Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana. The one opposite was reading Murakawi’s 1Q84. The young woman who got off the train in front of me was reading a Virago Modern Classic, […]
Sally Spedding is my guest
I first met Sally a number of years ago when we did an event together at Heffers in Cambridge. She writes stories that are very, very creepy. Her most recent novel, Malediction, is a noir thriller set in France. Her new book, How to Write a Chiller Thriller, explains some of the secrets of writing supernatural […]
A wonderful writer
The summer holidays are nearly over and it’s time to plan a visit to the London Library. Looking at my pile of library books, I realised that I hadn’t got very far into Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Corner That Held Them. I’d got distracted and had forgotten about it. I decided it was worth trying […]
It’s a luxurious feeling . . .
. . . when you discover a new writer – and find that they have written a whole series of books. This is what’s happened to me with Laurie R. King and her novels featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. I read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice while I was on holiday, and I’ve read the second, […]
A moving moment . . .
For me the most moving moment in Middlemarch is not the climax of the novel, when Dorothea and Will are united. To tell the truth, I am not terribly interested in this romance, and find Will rather tiresome – all that shaking his ringlets and what about that flirting with Rosamund Vincy? I am far […]
More on Middlemarch
Mr Casaubon’s Key to all Mythologies must be the most famous unpublished (indeed, unfinished) book in all of literature. In previous rereadings of Middlemarch, I’ve tended to skip over details of this work, but this time I was determined to read the novel from cover to cover. I was fascinated to discover that there is a […]
Middlemarch revisited
I’m back from holiday now. My reading challenge was the book that my book group has chosen as an optional big read: Middlemarch. It was wonderful reading it when I was able to immerse myself in it in a way that’s difficult among the distractions of home (and the internt). I got through it in a week or so. […]
A Beach Read
I am not really one for the beach, but when one is on holiday en famille, it’s sometimes necessary and I prepare for an expedition. So: sun block, yes, beach towels, yes, beach umbrella, yes, book . . . ah, that’s not so easy. I won’t be taking my e-reader as it’s too likely to […]
There ought to be a word for it
and now there is, because I have just invented one (with the help of my husband, whose German is much better than mine). It’s Leerbuchregalangst, the fear of being without anything to read (rendered literally: fear of the empty book shelf). One of the most difficult times in my life was in my twenties when […]