To two people whose hearts leap at the sight of rolling hills and rugged mountains, Suffolk can feel like a bleak country at first glance. But Suffolk is a county that guards its gems. One of those is the place where we stayed: Belle Grove Farm. From an unpromising cluster of farm buildings, owners travel-writer Jo and master recycler Nick…
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For novels about writing, look no further than Michael Chabon’s very wonderful Wonder Boys. If you stick to the film – it has Robert Downey Jr in it, how can you go wrong? – you will miss Dr Gaskell’s gem-like observations, the following being an example: “I waved to a couple of my offended colleagues and…
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“As Mary Fisher kept saying, ‘I am only as good as my last novel.’ And Bobbo knew that her novels were not ‘good’ at all, but merely saleable, a distinction she was afraid to make, for what is saleable today is unsaleable tomorrow.” Fay Weldon, The Lives and Loves of a She Devil

“It may feel strange,” novelist A L Kennedy said of the experience of reading Parade’s End. “Like going to bed with someone who really knows what they’re doing, but what they’re doing is slightly unfamiliar, and it will make you smile.” 

Autumn is my favourite time of year, more predictable than summer. Perhaps lower expectations causes more excitement when the opportunity to picnic or for a woodland walk presents itself. Latterly, it is has also become associated with literary festivals, the best of which can be found on www.literaryfestivals.co.uk For my money, I will visiting the Hampstead and…
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“There is not one human problem that could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.” Attributed to Gore Vidal

Whittling down the contents of your bookshelves to a top ten may seem like a daunting task, but it can also be an extremely enjoyable one. Perhaps not your own favourites, but those that you feel will encourage others to pick up a book. Because I have found greatest success in encouraging friends who say that…
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I have mixed feelings when I read that 250,000 books are being brought to the London 2012 Festival, to form the walls of a maze. I’m intrigued – there is something essentially fascinating about mazes – but why do we need a temporary artwork to remind us of the power of thoughts and words? Surely books should be opened, their secrets…
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“It is, in some ways, a horrible moment. A writer’s manuscript is a totemic object. Wafting from those few hundred pages, or from that digital file, is the heady aroma of dreams and hope and ambition – and sheer hour-upon-hour and month-upon-month of lonely graft. And then to be standing on the brink: to be…
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This morning I feel at a complete loss, having just finishing reading The Song of Achilles. Except, that is, to sing the praises of Madeline Miller, whose 10-year endeavour – a story she has clearly lived and breathed since she was a child – is nothing less than spectacular. With the Costa prize under her belt and an impatiently…
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