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Stella 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…
Continue readingThis week our local council announced the launch of plans for a new library complex in our town in the heart of the town centre. Broadly I approve of the proposals although I would like to see the library located…
Continue readingArtemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer I’ve always loved stories of fairies, elves, and the hidden people, but in truth whenever I think of them I imagine them living a simpler, more rural, rustic way of life tucked away out of…
Continue readingThe Man Who Rained by Ali Shaw This is the natural follow-up to Ali Shaw’s brilliant debut, The Girl With Glass Feet. It is every bit as beautifully and lyrically written as that story, but it is in a way…
Continue readingAnd so we reach 2014, and what a wet and bedraggled 2014 it looks to be so far. We stayed up for the fireworks last night and a small finger of whisky to see in the New Year but that…
Continue readingAt the beginning of 2013 I reset my perennial new year’s resolution to read more, and resolved once more to try and read 20 books this year. Today I can report that I have smashed my target, ground my previous…
Continue readingSpider Circus by Alice Nuttall I knew nothing about Spider Circus before I read this, and little about Alice Nuttall other than she was a student at the university where I work and I had put her profile on the web. When…
Continue readingThe 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 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 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 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 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 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 readingMagical Tales: Myth, Legend, and Enchantment in Children’s Books edited by Diane Purkiss and Carolyne Larrington This was the accompanying catalogue to the brilliant Magical Books exhibition that has been running this year at Oxford’s Bodleian Library and has been every bit as enjoyable…
Continue readingThe original plan (ie. the plan that only came into being two days ago) for today would have seen us spending this morning with my mum and dad. But plans changed, and circumstances dictated that we suddenly had an entire…
Continue readingAfter an early start to Saturday, giving the house a good clean, Emma and I headed out to Oxford just after midday to meet my Mum and Dad at The Perch Inn, Binsey – just on the edge of Port…
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