A few days ago I wrote about my minuscule part in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a play written as an allegory to the witch-huntery of communists and sympathisers in McCarthy’s America. A powerful play, when properly performed, thought provoking and disturbing. Witch-hunting is nothing new. Rumour, the spread of gossip, the false reporting, conspiracy […]Read Post ›
What a great mystery – you get two books for the price of one, and though the parallels are (not so) subtly spelt out for you, there is more than enough whodunnitness to keep you interested. Anthony Horowitz writes the way I would like to write- wittily, observantly, intelligently. He’s clever and fun, and is […]Read Post ›
I received this book last Friday. Every spare moment this weekend was spent reading it – I finally finished it this morning. A fascinating insight into the mind and mores of a man whose life and experiences could not be more different from my own. Time, place, customs and the law all played their part […]Read Post ›
Yes indeed, I am jumping on the royalty bandwagon. Quite incidentally really, but last week, when I was still in Poland, I received an email advertising a Jubilee inspired lecture in Kingston. Normally this wouldn’t have interested me at all – Kingston is an hour away, 6 30 in the evening is not a convenient […]Read Post ›
It took me a long time to pick up this book and actually read it. I was reluctant at first because I had somehow convinced myself it was by the author of the Thorn Birds, a popular book when I was at University in the seventies, but which I don’t remember particularly enjoying, though people […]Read Post ›
Good Friday always used to be the most difficult day of the year for me. When I was little it was the beginning of the most boring long weekend of the year. Friday was a bank holiday – there was absolutely nowhere to go, nothing to do, all the shops were shut, it was usually […]Read Post ›
I wonder who remembers this face. If any of his family ever come across it then please get in touch. David’s birthday was on 15th March. He used to joke about the portents and then one day his worst fear was realised and he sadly died in May 1990, a very few weeks after being […]Read Post ›
I like Sandy Toksvig very much, her feminism, her humour, her wit and her take on reality. I can only say that I am glad she wrote this book quite a while ago and that her writing has improved since then.At times this felt not like a novel but a feminist tract, and not in […]Read Post ›
A sequel of sorts to The Salt Path, I read this book with such pleasure. The lives of the characters could not be more different to my own. Raynor and Moth are about my age and that’s it. They have been the sufferers of great misfortune, having been made homeless through no fault of their […]Read Post ›
by and for MD Finally Meeting Mum by Mike Daligan is a tome that lifts the spirits and shows you how it is possible to come to terms with whatever life throws at you. This delightful book is very hard to categorise. It starts off with a poem – a beautiful paean to mothers everywhere […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 