Do you use bookends, the simple device that buttresses or props up an upright row of books? Bookends are utilitarian, in that they stop a row of books from falling over, but they can also be decorative. Read more
Chopin’s Piano and George Sand
Literary Films
Sir Walter Raleigh & Even Such is Time
Even Such is Time by Sir Walter Raleigh
400 years ago this year poet, courtier, explorer, soldier and politician, Sir Walter Raleigh, was beheaded in Old Palace Yard, Westminster. He had been charged with treason against King James I. He asked to see the axe and remarked, “This is a sharp medicine, but it is a Physician for all Diseases.” Read more
Poem of the Month, July 2018 – ‘Macavity: The Mystery Cat’
Macavity: The Mystery Cat by T.S. Eliot
Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw—
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime—Macavity’s not there! Read more
Literary Statues
The Nobel Prize for Literature
The Moonstone
Bookshops devote many shelves to detective fiction. But the genre is a fairly modern phenomenon that began with Wilkie Collins’ classic The Moonstone, published 150 years ago this year. Read more
Poem of the Month, June 2018 – ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
My favourite American poet is Robert Frost, who was born in San Francisco in 1874 but who spent most of his life in New England, writing about the rhythms of life on a farm – mending the stone wall, picking apples, sawing wood, walking through the woods and needing to decide which path to follow. Read more
‘Frankenstein’ is 200
Book Towns
In 1961 a man called Richard Booth opened a second hand bookshop in the unused fire station in a little Welsh town named Hay-on-Wye. He hoped to fill the town with book shops and he even crowned himself King of Hay and in 1977 proclaimed Hay an independent kingdom. He bought the ruined castle on a hill overlooking the town, and got a great deal of publicity for his eccentric ways. Read more
Children of the Nazis
In 2016 the Baillie Gifford Prize for a non-fiction book was awarded to East West Street by Philippe Sands. I read it recently after my sister had recommended it (thanks Rache) and found it absolutely fascinating. Philippe Sands is a lawyer and was invited to lecture on international law in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Read more
My Little Free Library
I am now the proud owner of a Little Free Library and have been so enjoying it. It stands outside my house and locals have been stopping to look and take away a book to read. Read more
John McCrae & In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
The name John McCrae might not immediately ring any bells with you, but I bet you know his poem. Everyone knows his poem! In Flanders Fields is one of the most famous poems of WWI, and is remembered by all who buy poppies to commemorate the war. Read more
