Having just finished Hilary Mantel’s A Change of Climate, I arrived at the notes about the author; not a brief biog, but an interview with Sarah O’Reilly, who asked if Hilary could detect an underlying theme in the body of her work. “I was brought up a Catholic and that’a very hard thing to shake off….
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Boris Johnson has now announced that he is backing the London Evening Standard’s Get London Reading campaign. Nationally, one in five children leave primary school at the age of 11 unable to read properly. In London, this statistic increases to a staggering 25%. Geordie Greig, Editor, says, “We are joining forces with Volunteer Reading Help, a charity that…
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On Thursday evening, I was delighted to be invited by Bookham Library to co-host an event celebrating women authors with novelist Melanie Rose. Melanie, who has had her writing published in several different countries, displayed the various translations. What I found particularly interesting was how differently the same book was packaged. For the English market it was in typical chick-lit…
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“Another one bites the dust.” A quote from Queen, yes, but dating back to 1604, in the aftermath of the death of Queen Elizabeth 1. If a child is said to be the apple of her parents’ eye; if an idea is as old as the hills; if, when ill ,we are said to be on death’s door…
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I have previously derided Tom McCarthy’s comments about the ‘the novel being the anti-novel,’ but, finally, I am beginning to see the light. The last two books I have read have been what I can only term ‘concepts’ novels, that is, books that do not take the form of a traditional structure. We are invited to believe…
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“From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.” Helen Hayes

At last! The list of books selected for this year’s give-away has been released, and I think you’ll agree there is something to tempt even the most reluctant reader – from classics to contemporary favourites, international bestsellers to major prize-winners. And all chosen by you: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The Player of Games by Iain M Banks Sleepyhead…
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“I can, of, course, see the temptations of not beginning. Chiefly, not beginning, sustains the belief that you are gifted, that the novel – when you one day get round to writing it – will surpass all others, that you will suffer no rejections, that it will be published at once and be thereafter visible…
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A recent visit to Cloud Hill, the tiny dilapidated cottage that T E Lawrence first rented, and then purchased, as a writing retreat (and where he received visitors such as Thomas Hardy, Bernard and Charlotte Shaw and E M Forster), I am developing a fascination with the man. So far this fascination has resulted in a revisiting of Lawrence of…
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I was delighted to see that the 60 second interview in yesterday’s Metro was with P J O’Rourke. His book Modern Manners (‘The world is going to hell. All we can do is behave in a way that makes us look good on the trip.’) contains so many laugh-out-loud sentences, I am surprised that reading it on…
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