01 Aug 2017
Authors, Newsletter 18 Comments Permalink
original Winnie-The-Pooh toys
The real stuffed toys owned by Christopher Robin Milne.

Christopher Robin Milne

1 August 2017 18 Comments
Christopher Robin Milne

Christopher Robin Milne with Pooh. Surely the most loved bear in fiction.

Being the child of a famous author is not easy. Being the child that a famous author has included in his books is virtually a nightmare. Christopher Robin Milne certainly found it horrific.

His early years were happy ones, but once his father included him and his toys in Now We are Six and Winnie-the-Pooh, the boy was mercilessly teased and lived under a spotlight of media attention. He came to loathe the poem Vespers (“Christopher Robin is saying his prayers …”) because he was so endlessly teased about it, while the lines “Christopher Robin goes hoppity hoppity hoppity hoppity hop …” drove him almost to distraction. Read more

01 Aug 2017
Newsletter, Poems, Poets 6 Comments Permalink
Bronze sculpture depicting Heaney's poem 'Digging'

Seamus Heaney & Digging

1 August 2017 6 Comments
I recently visited the fabulous new Seamus Heaney Homeplace in the village of Bellaghy in Ireland. There, along with all my tour group, I absolutely fell in love with Heaney. He was a stunning poet and an incredibly nice man. The new centre is superb – interactive and informative, it brings his works alive for the visitor. In the village is a wonderful new statue, depicting a man digging peat. It is an illustration of one of Heaney’s most famous poems:

Digging by Seamus Heaney

Read more

15 Jul 2017
Books, Events, Jane Austen, Media, Newsletter 14 Comments Permalink
Jane Austen, colourised version of the 1873 re-engraving (cropped)
Jane Austen, colourised version of the 1873 re-engraving (cropped)

“I have lost a treasure” wrote Cassandra

15 July 2017 14 Comments
“I have lost a treasure”, wrote Cassandra Austen on the death of her sister Jane. The literary world too lost one of its brightest treasures when Jane Austen died on 18 July, 1817, aged only 41. Around the world those who love her six novels will mourn her loss and celebrate her legacy. Read more

01 Jul 2017
Books, Jane Austen, Newsletter 14 Comments Permalink
Jane Austen Library
Jane Austen Library

Jane Austen’s Death

1 July 2017 14 Comments

“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love … Jane Austen”

July is an extremely important month in the literary world. On 18th July it will be 200 years since Jane Austen died, at the tragically early age of 41, in Winchester. She left us a legacy of six completed novels, two unfinished ones, some juvenilia, letters and a few poems and other small pieces. The world will be marking this important anniversary in many ways. There will be exhibitions, talks, dances, guided walks, conferences, afternoon teas, trivia nights, and events hosted by Jane Austen societies in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Czech Republic, England, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, North America, Pakistan, Scotland, Singapore and Spain. Read more

01 Jul 2017
Authors, Books, Newsletter 20 Comments Permalink
The Door Into The Secret Garden In Kew Gardens - London.
The Door Into The Secret Garden In Kew Gardens - London.

I do Love a Nice Garden

1 July 2017 20 Comments
Is there a word in the English language that is the opposite of ‘green-fingered’? If so, I’d love to know what it is? If not, there should be, because it describes what I am – very good at killing plants.

But while I might be useless at growing things, I do love a nice garden, and I also like to read about gardens. Recently, in preparation for giving a talk on Frances Hodgson Burnett, I re-read The Secret Garden. I’d forgotten just what a lovely novel it is. Published in 1911, the novel became an instant best-seller. It tells of two psychologically damaged children who find happiness and purpose when they restore an old garden. It was said that you could actually learn to prune roses from its pages. Read more

01 Jul 2017
Authors, Newsletter 12 Comments Permalink
Susannah Fullerton OAM
Susannah Fullerton OAM

The Thrill of Awards

1 July 2017 12 Comments
I was very honoured last month to be awarded an Order of Australia Medal for Services to Literature. I share this award with all of you who attend my talks, come on my tours, and read this newsletter. It was such a thrill to receive it. And on top of that I was also last month made a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW. This is primarily a scientific body, but they are extending into the arts and I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Fellow. Read more

01 Jun 2017
Books, Newsletter 43 Comments Permalink
What books make you laugh
What books make you laugh

What Books Make You Laugh?

1 June 2017 43 Comments

Do you often laugh over books? I mean a real belly-laugh, with tears in your eyes?

Humour is a very individual thing. A friend recently lent me a book which he told me he’d nearly died laughing over. For me the book failed to even raise a smile. Another friend adores Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim and says it never fails to make her laugh out loud. I quite like it, but have never laughed over it. I do laugh over E.F. Benson’s fabulous novel Secret Lives, Bill Bryson can usually have me chuckling happily, and some of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels have made me literally ache with laughter (these books are not worthy literature – in fact, they are rather foolish books, but they do make me laugh). Read more

01 Jun 2017
Authors, Jane Austen, Newsletter 4 Comments Permalink
Charlie Lovett books by Susannah Fullerton
Charlie Lovett books by Susannah Fullerton

Charlie Lovett

1 June 2017 4 Comments
Charlie Lovett

Charlie Lovett

Have you come across an American novelist called Charlie Lovett? He’s a writer, teacher and playwright and his books have been on the New York Times bestseller list.

I really loved his mystery novel First Impressions about a girl called Sophie who works in the antiquarian book business and gets drawn into a mystery that connects her to Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. It was so cleverly written. I also loved The Lost Book of the Grail which is set in Barchester, a fictional county dreamed up by Anthony Trollope. Read more

01 Jun 2017
Authors, Books, Newsletter 2 Comments Permalink
All seven books in the Harry Potter series in order without their dust jackets.
All seven books in the Harry Potter series in order without their dust jackets.

Harry Potter Turns 20

1 June 2017 2 Comments
J.K. Rowling reads from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

J.K. Rowling reads from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

On 26 June 1997, a novel for children was published without any great fanfare. It was the first in a planned series of books featuring a boy with wizarding powers called Harry Potter. Ten years later the 7th book in the series was published and by that time there cannot have been many people in the world who had not heard of the boy, the books and the author, J.K. Rowling. Read more

01 Jun 2017
Authors, Newsletter 6 Comments Permalink
Alan Titchmarsh at the 2014 RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Alan Titchmarsh at the 2014 RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Alan Titchmarsh

1 June 2017 6 Comments
Alan Titchmarsh, England Our England

Alan Titchmarsh, England Our England

Alan Titchmarsh is best known as a gardener and TV presenter, and for being regularly voted one of the world’s sexiest men, but he is also a writer. He has written many gardening books, and some fiction. I enjoyed his light but rather charming novel Rosie (2004).

But my favourite of his productions is a CD, England, Our England. It’s a fabulous celebration of English traditions, landscape and weather, through the words of various writers. Read more

01 Jun 2017
Authors, Movies, Newsletter, Screen versions 2 Comments Permalink
Lobby card from the 1933 film Little Women starring Paul Lukas and Katharine Hepburn.
Lobby card from the 1933 film Little Women starring Paul Lukas and Katharine Hepburn.

Film Adaptations

1 June 2017 2 Comments
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

The BBC has recently announced that it will be adapting Vikram Seth’s monumental novel A Suitable Boy as an 8-part drama. It will be their first ever period drama featuring a totally non-white cast. The screenplay will be written by (who else?) Andrew Davies. Filming will start later this year. Read more

01 May 2017
Books, Newsletter, Reading 10 Comments Permalink
Muirs Bookshop in Gisborne, N.Z. (by kind permission of the owner, Kim)
Muirs Bookshop in Gisborne, N.Z. (by kind permission of the owner, Kim)

A Wall of Promise and Treasures

1 May 2017 10 Comments
“Where is human nature so weak as in the book store?” asked Henry Ward Beecher (preacher, religious writer and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe). He’s quite right. No matter how strong the resolution not to buy more books until the pile by the bed is drastically reduced, somehow I find it very hard to leave a bookshop without making a purchase. Read more

01 May 2017
Newsletter, Poems, Poets 6 Comments Permalink
Solent Outdoor Beach Sea Resort Isle Of Wight
Solent Outdoor Beach Sea Resort Isle Of Wight

Alfred, Lord Tennyson & Crossing the Bar

1 May 2017 6 Comments
Crossing the Bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Lord Tennyson portrait by P. Krämer

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Read more