books

Judy Blume to W. B. Yeats

It's that time of the month - #6degrees again. Read about it here and join in.  Play the animation and…

4 years ago

Secret Agent, Mother, Saboteur, Bomb-maker, Spy Chief, Novelist, Housewife

As of last week, the only thing I knew about Agnes Smedley was that The Feminist Press had reissued her…

4 years ago

#6Degrees Freestyle

The November #6degrees is freestyle. Instead of everyone starting in the same place with the same book, each participant starts…

4 years ago

The 1956 Book Club and a Game

And the #1956Club is open for business and this time I'm joining and you can too.. I'm old enough to…

4 years ago

The Book Chain: Six Degrees and the Invention of Sex

Long before the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, bookish teens had Iris Murdoch. As the poet Philip Larkin…

4 years ago

The School is Dead, Long Live the School

This is actually a story about books but somehow the schools took over. It does start with the books -…

5 years ago

From Minty to Moses – the Extraordinary Fierce and Fearless Harriet Tubman

In September we heard Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Oprah Winfrey at the Apollo in NYC. The topic was his…

5 years ago

Angela Brazil, the Tribal World of School and School Change

Scooterons-nous vite. It's Back to School with Angela Brazil Long before Harry Potter - and indeed long before all those…

5 years ago

All Hands Above Board for the Scuttlebutt

It's always fun when someone you know - a friend - has a book published. Here's Three Sheets to the…

5 years ago

Pulp Fiction Surprise

Just over 20 years ago now a teacher walked into my office and said that he had just found a…

5 years ago

Angela Brazil – Rhymes With Dazzle – at Dunkirk

When intelligence officer Arthur Marshall was on the beach at Dunkirk in 1940 he turned to the work of Angela…

5 years ago

Much Ado About Food: Kate Atkinson and Elizabeth David

Novelists and film makers often struggle to find the right period details to anchor their work in a particular era.…

5 years ago

Much Ado About Deception and Delusion: Kate Atkinson’s Transcription and London 1940

The sandwich was no comfort, it was a pale limp thing a long way from the déjeuner sur l'herbe of her…

5 years ago

Save Your Neighborhood

Buy local. If you live in a city, town or village you probably appreciate the local amenities. These include the…

5 years ago

Choosing books by the cover

I once worked in a school where the librarian arranged the non-fiction by the color of the spine. It made…

7 years ago