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The Voice That Thunders by Alan Garner I began to read this book of essays and lectures with some trepidation. Since before my teenage years I have loved Alan Garner’s books and have grown up with them at my side,…
Continue readingTime Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.by Jeremy Mercer This is a bookophiles book; a book for everyone who loves everything about books, and the written word. It is impossible that I wouldn’t love it. I…
Continue readingTales of the Norse Gods by Barbara Leonie Picard, Rosamund Fowler (Illustrator) This is a charming little book that takes you through the stories of the Norse Gods. There is an over-arching story that runs through the series of shorter tales…
Continue readingFrozen Out by Quentin Bates I’ve not really read much detective fiction/thrillers so I am unused to the conventions of the genre but I enjoyed this book – the first in the Officer Gunnhildur series. It’s a story set at…
Continue readingThe Vanity of Small Differences by Grayson Perry Until recently I didn’t really no much about the Grayson Perry, except that he was a transvestite potter who had won the Turner Prize. His recent presentation of the BBC Reith Lectures…
Continue readingOne Wish by Michelle Harrison Some people might think that stories about fairies are childish and silly and possibly inconsequential. Not so, the fey of Michelle Harrisons 13 Treasures books. They are dark and scary, tricksy and all too real….
Continue readingAlphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story by Michael Rosen I have enjoyed dipping in an out of this book a chapter – or should I say a letter – at a time since Christmas. The history of, and the…
Continue readingThe Crowfield Demon by Pat Walsh This is the second in the Crowfield trilogy by Pat Walsh – a series of books that pitches religious beliefs with beliefs of magic and the fae world. Our hero is Will an orphan…
Continue readingThe River at Green Knowe by L.M. Boston, illustrated Peter Boston Lucy Boston’s first and original book, The Children of Green Knowe has long been a favourite of mine – a ghost story with a hint of fantasy set in the quietly mysterious Fens. Six…
Continue readingHowever much we either liked or hated school, we all have favourite teachers from our school days. And a lot of people – and probably all creative people – had inspirational teachers. I’ve had a few in my school days……
Continue readingAsh Wednesday by Ethan Hawke This is a fantastic, thoughtful, and insightful read about some not so likeable characters. That is not to say that it is impossible to like Jimmy, Chrissy, or their love story of a road trip…
Continue readingViking! by Kevin Crossley-Holland Vikings have had a resurgence of popularity in the last few years, as have the interest in the old Norse legends – just witness the new exhibition about the Vikings at the British Museum. This book…
Continue readingThe Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula Jones The appearance of this book has been an unexpected pleasure for any Diana Wynne Jones fan, being the book that she was working on when she died, and for that you can forgive…
Continue readingStrandline by Tamsin Showbrook By the author’s own admission she wrote this story because she had “a bee in my bonnet for ages about feeling I had the right to criticise the novels of other people when I’d never tried…
Continue readingAlice Nuttall is a PhD student at the university where I work, and it was a colleague of mine who pointed me in the direction of her debut novel, Spider Circus. I am really glad that I was because I…
Continue readingThe Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle This is my second Sherlock Holmes adventure that I have read, and coincidentally one of only four full-length novels that he wrote. I also have jumped from the first to the last…
Continue readingStella by Helen Eve I knew from the very beginning that I was not the target demographic for this, the first novel from Helen Eve. I came across it because Helen is an alumnus of the MA Creative Writing course where I…
Continue readingA Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to read some Sherlock Holmes. I never have until now, in part because I’ve imagined it to be quite a slow, difficult read. When…
Continue readingLast week I reminisced about my library use of yore. With my reading volume in 2014 having gone up a gear (or two), I’ve decided that I really ought to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak…
Continue readingHow It All Began by Penelope Lively When I was little, Penelope Lively’s sadly often forgotten children’s novels were some of my favourite reads. Once I had exhausted her children’s books I moved on to enjoy her adult fiction. Last year when…
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