Suggested reading list for
I love to recommend books that I’ve read and enjoyed, so here’s my list of great reading about mothers.
Some authors have written very memorably of their own mothers. J.M. Barrie published Margaret Ogilvy in 1896. His mother lost her eldest and favourite son, and poor James spent his life trying to make up for the lost boy who was his brother. Read more
Adlestrop by Edward Thomas
Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.
From the feedback I have received from my previous post, it sounds as if there have been librocubicularists popping up all over the place! It is a word I’ve been trying to introduce into the conversation whenever possible, as I think it is so wonderful, and I have also been trying to put it into practice as much as possible. In my view, reading in bed is one of life’s greatest pleasures.
The BBC is making a new 4-part adaptation of E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End. It stars Hayley Atwell and Matthew Macfadyen and is being filmed at the moment. It will be hard to better the 1992 film version with Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins etc, but a longer version will hopefully do full justice to the novel.
I recently read, and loved, A House Full of Daughters by Juliet Nicolson, a book which begins with her great-great grandmother, the Spanish dancer Pepita, and ends with Juliet’s own granddaughters. It covers seven generations. I knew a lot about some of them from various biographies, but found it fascinating to follow the family through the female line, seeing how the troubles of one woman impacted on the next generation. Read more
I’ve been preparing for my literary tour of Ireland in May and have enjoyed learning more about Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh (1904 – 1967). Kavanagh was born a countryman, in Inniskeen, County Monaghan, but he left the farm and moved to Dublin. In his later years, when he had a serious alcohol problem, he liked to walk by the Grand Canal, or just sit watching the water.
Her prize-winning Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self is a delightful introduction to Pepys if you have not yet discovered how addictive he can be. Read more
I have loved reading the Robert Galbraith series of novels (those are the crime novels written by J.K. Rowling under another name), so was delighted to learn that they have been filming the first one, The Cuckoo’s Calling. It will come out on BBC1 this year, with Tom Burke as Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger as Robin. It will be in 3 x 1 hour episodes.
Not Waving but Drowning, by Stevie Smith
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning. Read more
Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Rodi. A book of literary criticism about Jane Austen’s novels that was fun and thought-provoking (please take it for granted that my 6 top reads every year are invariably Jane Austen’s books) Read more
