Category Archives: Uncategorized

In museums, libraries and the landscape, a memory remains of a wilderness of unquiet graves, riddling marshes and storm-beaten cliffs. The stories to come and the commentaries that follow them were inspired by these memories, found in cultural artefacts whose … Continue reading →

I started reading The Children of Green Knowe by L M Boston for a Substack read-along (first I’ve ever done; will I do a knit-along next?), and immediately entered another world. It’s like being transported into a beautiful old-fashioned snow … Continue reading →

The idea that children’s writing is a lower form – a  brain-injured version of writing for adults, as (writer Martin Amis) Amis caricatured it – is as persistent as it is misguided. Children’s literature isn’t a defective and frivolous sidebar … Continue reading →

One of the gifts of growing older has been birds. My parents used to sit by the big window in this house, sometimes with binoculars or an old pair of opera glasses, and watch the birds in the garden. I … Continue reading →

Sometimes even murder stories or favourite children’s books don’t do the trick, and such a time is now. I have been avoiding any news about the US elections (or the war in the Middle East – and poor Ukrainians, they’re … Continue reading →

I’m going through a very frustrating phase in my reading life. It’s very unsettling; I can’t seem to find the ‘Goldilocks’ book, the one that’s just right. My library bag is full of returns that I’ve glanced into and skimmed … Continue reading →

Second time around for The Weekend; I first read it when it was released in 2019. I hated it. Because I loved Adele, Jude, Wendy and Finn the dog as if they were real people – my friends –  and … Continue reading →

All around me now there are open acres, acres of ruined and desolate land, where the bombs fell. Over there the square tower of a gutted church survives as the only landmark, till the harmonious walls of the cathedral rise … Continue reading →

There can be a perverse pleasure, as well as a sense of rightness and beauty, in insisting on flowering just when the world expects you to become quiet and diminish. I got a lot of joy out of Hagitude: Reimagining … Continue reading →

Our most recent library book group novel. I went along to the meeting quite unsure about Lola in the Mirror. I said to the group, ‘I don’t know what to think about this one. Maybe you can tell me.’ I … Continue reading →