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Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome I remember reading this as a child and loving it even more than the original Swallows and Amazons, maybe because it was even more Titty’s story than the first. When John’s recklassness leads to the sinking…
Continue readingSwallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome This was the first full-length novel that I read on my own as a boy (much to the disappointment of my Mum) and I have read it periodically ever since. It is, to me,…
Continue readingAfter a weekend in which Emma and I completed another 12 mile training walk I’ve used up a couple of last days of annual leave to make a nice 4 day weekend, and some genuine me time to get back…
Continue readingThe Other Alice by Michelle Harrison If 13 Treasures was the story that brought Michelle Harrison to us as a storyteller, and Unrest was the book to show how powerful, scary, and disturbing a storyteller she could be, then her…
Continue readingThe Outrun by Amy Liptrot I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book – the autobiography of a young woman struggling to overcome her alcholism. Within the first few pages I was proved wrong. This is a…
Continue readingThe Killing Files by Nikki Owen For anyone who has read the first book in the Project Trilogy, The Spider in the Corner of the Room (now Subject 375), it is not a surprise if this is the very next…
Continue readingFingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir by Chris Packham This is a stunningly written memoir from one of the finest wildlife presenters and naturalists working today. This is a book that flits forwards and back through memory, mixing encounters…
Continue readingFamily, Friendships, Landscapes: Rex Whistler: Inspiration by Hugh Cecil This small book is an amuse-bouche to Hugh and Mirabel Cecil’s 2012 book, In Search of Rex Whistler, the publication of which coincided with a fantastic exhibition at the Salisbury Museum…
Continue readingDay of the Vikings by J.F. Penn It wasn’t until I started to read this novella that I realised it was the fifth part in J.F. Penn’s Arkane series. Not that this matters as it is a standalone story in…
Continue readingThe Spider in the Corner of the Room (The Project, #1) by Nikki Owen I was recently fortunate enough to share a platform with Nikki Owen at the Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival. As well reading from our books, we both…
Continue readingJess the Goth Fairy by Jess Hiles, Jo Allmond, Emily Daly (Illustrations) I was priviledged to sit on a panel discussing ‘difference’ in fiction at the Hawkesbury Upton with the authors of this book, Jess Hiles and Jo Allmond, and…
Continue readingFly by Night by Frances Hardinge When I first heard about Frances Hardinge’s books I went to my local bookshop determined to find this, her debut, novel. They didn’t have it and so I bought one of her later books,…
Continue readingWhen the Floods Came by Clare Morrall I heard the author talking about how the idea for this book came to her after imagining what a waste motorways were on cars, and how such wide, level, often-elevated roads would be…
Continue readingWar and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator) War and Peace is one of those books that I think everyone thinks they ought to read, and probably means to read, but never gets round to it….
Continue readingSo, the book that most people have lied about reading is not War & Peace (it is at #4 in the Top 20) but Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As I have actually read he most-lied about book – if actually…
Continue readingSo I’m reading War & Peace at the moment. It’s a book that has been on my To Read list for years, I guess because it is probably *the book* that everyone feels that they should (even if they don’t) read. It’s…
Continue readingSo this year is the year that I shall finally read War & Peace. Spurred on by the current BBC TV adaptation that is currently showing, its going well. Not that I haven’t read part of it before. After several…
Continue readingAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll Hard as it might be to believe, but I don’t think I have ever read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland before. It is one of those books and those…
Continue readingThis was my second full year of getting the bus to work and reading lots, and lots – another 45 books in all. That said, I also did a 100-day walking challenge with work during the summer which shortened my…
Continue readingSlade House by David Mitchell Narrow, tall-sided alleys are made for stories, and it is in just such a narrow, tall-sided alley that this dark fantasy/magical realism story starts. Don’t be put off by the ‘horror’ label that seems to…
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