Category
The Wave in the Mind: Talks & Essays on the Writer, the Reader & the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin I don’t usually comment on the star rating that I give to books, but with this one I feel it is…
Continue readingChristmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a touch of magic. It would also be lacking without a festive trip to see something by Creation Theatre. After last year’s Aladinn, and before that A Christmas Carol, I was very excited. This year’s offering…
Continue readingBefore Midnight by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy For the last eighteen years I have loved the film Before Sunrise. Shortly after seeing it I found a copy of the screenplay and it became another favourite. That edition of the book is no…
Continue readingThe Awakening (The Judas Curse, #1) by Angella Graff Religious fiction is not really my usual bag, but urban fantasy (for want of a better word, and I think there probably is…) is. When I came across this book with…
Continue readingI always knew that going to the Post Office on the Saturday before Christmas was going to involve queuing – lots of queuing – but I don’t think my brain had really processed just how long a queue would be…
Continue readingToday has been Emma’s birthday. As something a bit different this year, we’ve had a night away at the Bourne Valley Inn in St Mary Bourne in rural Hampshire. Yesterday we visited Avebury to see the biggest stone circle in…
Continue readingThe Ring In Winter Birds circle, overhead Calling, cawing A cold, grey mist lingers over mound and ditch. Stones loom over me For age after age, they have stood in this place. Seasons have passed seasons by The distant future…
Continue readingA bit more of a quiet day today. Well, that is until this afternoon. Whilst I can’t stand the repeated traipsing round the shops, doing panic-stricken Christmas shopping to get all the presents bought, favouring instead to do much by…
Continue readingA bit of a productive day today, cleaning out the animals and such, but I did get some good reading time in there too – that is – when I wasn’t staring at the most gorgeous of sunsets… After the…
Continue readingBanzai’s Unexpected Voyage by Jane-Anne Hodgson, illustrated by Sammy Jim! When I read the first Grubson Pugg book – Grubson Pugg’s Christmas Voyage – as the final book of last year (and what a festive joy that was!) I found…
Continue readingI never really think that Christmas has begun until I play some carols. Yes, we’ve been playing Christmas music at band since November but that is rehearsal for the concert next week and so doesn’t count. This morning Emma and…
Continue readingI’m on holiday! Oh yeah! 😀 It’s been a long ol’ week, and not just because of the second 10-hour day at work, but its over now, and I’ve even got an old office chair I was able to take…
Continue readingWorked a 10-hour day today, thanks to Emma kindly dropping me off at work and then collecting me again at the end of the day. What it did mean though, is that instead of working my normal 8:30 to 4:30…
Continue readingI worked from home today so that Emma could go with me to the doctors earlier this afternoon. A week and a half a go, on our Suffolk weekend I had, what you might call a funny episode. After we…
Continue readingWrite by Phil Daoust (Editor) I first encountered this joy of a book when I attended a talk on a cold, snowy day at the Oxford Literary Festival in March last year. A couple of students from the Oxford Brookes…
Continue readingSteak and Kidney Pie with mash This classic British pie is the perfect comfort food, just right for the whole family. Serve it with peas or your favourite Superfree veg for a filling, sumptuous supper. Serves: 4 Cook time: 45…
Continue readingOn Friday afternoon, Emma and I trekked over to Suffolk for the weekend. I say trekked because it was a long, slow, journey that coincided with rush-hours in several parts of the country, but we made it – just before…
Continue readingFour British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children’s Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper by Charles Butler I’ve owned this book since it came out in 2006 but have shamefully only just got…
Continue readingThis weekend has been one for hibernating, partly because of the weather which has been cold, and grey, and utterly wintery, but partly also because Emma has been working/on-call which dictates that we can’t venture very far. So I decided…
Continue readingBurial Rites by Hannah Kent As I am myself a foreigner inspired to write about Iceland, I was clearly going to read this Australian’s debut novel. I am so glad I heard about it. It’s based on a true story…
Continue reading
