literature

1940 and the #1940Club

Hope I'm not jumping the gun here but the #1940Club starts next week and I've been gearing up and getting…

2 years ago

The Aspirational Dottiness of Old Age

Here's a treat for those who relish fiction with off-the-wall cognitive mayhem - The Hearing Trumpet Suddenly it seemed as…

2 years ago

Latest Book Discoveries

With so many books and so little time, it helps to have a little guidance. It also helps when two…

3 years ago

All for Nothing

Hands down, this is the best book I've read all year: All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski.  It's the bitter…

3 years ago

Hemlock and After and Angus Wilson

‘Oh, I know all about goats,’ Sonia was saying. ‘People give them the same recommendation as the billeting officers did…

3 years ago

What ho! George Orwell and Cancel Culture

Few things in this war have been more morally disgusting than the present hunt after traitors and Quislings. At best…

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

“Gervase, I’ve Lost a Toy Shop”

Always fun to find half-remembered books. One bonus of this decluttering lark is that you find so many of them.…

5 years ago

About Isms He was Never Wrong: George Orwell at the Café Royal

George Orwell had an interesting chance encounter with a blasé conspiracy theorist at the Café Royal in 1940. (See left). The young…

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

The Art of Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Two Sundays, two documentaries and two very satisfactory movie experiences. The first was Maiden at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY.…

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

To Kill a Mockingbird on Trial

I haven't read Go Set a Watchman and I'm not sure I will. I did read the first chapter in…

9 years ago

Explorers and Navigators

Science teacher Jonathan Heiles sent a link to all of us about the international public campaign to name the surface…

10 years ago

Paper Cuts: Josh at the Sewing Machine

The first day of alleged spring and another day disrupted by the rituals and routines of early dismissal. By  mid…

10 years ago