The Greedy Queen
2019 sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria, so we can expect a plethora of books about the Queen who shaped and gave her name to an era. Read more
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Emily Brontë & No Coward Soul is Mine
It was Emily Brontë’s 200th birthday recently. She was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, and soon afterwards her parents moved to Haworth, where the Brontë Museum is today. (The picture above is of a sculpture of the three Brontë sisters at Haworth Museum). Read more
What Sort of Reader Are You?
What sort of reader are you? Do you read slowly, savouring every word? Or do you rush through a book and then think about it afterwards? According to the poet Coleridge, there are 4 classes of reader: Read more
Have you met Maisie Dobbs?
Have you met Maisie Dobbs? She is the character created by novelist Jacqueline Winspear in a series of crime novels set in London between WWI and WWII. Maisie sets up as a private investigator with a Cockney assistant named Billy Beale. Read more
Do you use bookends?
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
T.S. Elliot & 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
