PLACES & BOOKS

“Autobiography is usually honest but never truthful.” So wrote Robert A. Heinlein in his novel Friday, and I’m inclined to agree. I’ve re...

2020. The weirdest year ever. The world turned upside down. But for a moment let's try to ignore Covid-19, Brexit and politics as much as...

Hi again bibliophiles! Today’s blog is about Reading Slumps – what they are, how to recognise them and how to ease yourself out of them… ...

2019. What a big year. Crikey – so much happened! There was · A level results for youngest daughter and her going off for her first year ...

Losing yourself in a book. We’ve all done it. Entering the world, becoming the character, forgetting yourself. It’s a wonderful and somet...

In my last blog I asked What is a Classic? and I considered that possibly the best we could do would be to cumulate all our “100 books yo...

I saw a fascinating-looking book the other day which I'd have bought if I'd not been on a book buying ban. It was called 'Why read the cl...

Let me take you down to the borders of Wales and England, to a small and beautiful town nestling in the hills on the edge of the Brecon B...

30 books, Marie? Really? Well of course we all now know that’s not what she said. Or at least I hope we know that. What she said was ““I ...

Do books you have previously read call to you? Or do you just want to keep discovering new books and new authors? Today I am considering ...

How diverse are your bookshelves? I'm constantly asking myself that question, challenging my assumptions - for why read if not to experie...

2018. There it goes. Whoosh. Bye! While others were obsessed with Brexit, I was busy reading (and doing other stuff). Mostly reading thou...

In memory of my favourite bookshop... I still feel a sense of loss whenever I walk past a particular shop-front in my town. All the frivo...

Do you listen to podcasts? What about audio books? Me, I’m a relative latecomer to these worlds of wonder. Until about a year ago, I pret...

I’m lucky enough to work in the heart of Bloomsbury – Virginia Woolf territory – in London, so spend virtually every weekday there. Withi...

A little while ago I squeezed a longer article into bookstagram format, so here I am going to unpack it a little. The post was called The...

Why read fiction? Hmmm? Of all the ways to pass your short time on this planet, why stick your head in the midst of a few hundred pages o...

Good day lovely people. Today I am bringing you a list of my top hundred favourite books. These aren't necessarily the greatest books eve...