Three literary giants Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath are known the world over. This book gives us the story of the remarkable women Three literary giants Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath are known the world over. This book gives us the story of the remarkable women who shaped them; Julia Stephen, Clara Miller and Aurelia Plath. These were incredible and fascinating women in their own right and as parents profoundly influenced their daughters lives.
The mother - daughter bond as we know can be a tricky one to negotiate, but always for better or worse it shapes who we become. I found this such an interesting way to look at these authors, as it often isn’t done. They tend to get written about in relation to their lovers, or their writing work and their lives lived forward, rather than looking at where they came from and how their mother may have influenced their behaviour and ultimately their literary output.
I basically went straight for Agatha Christie and her mother Clara Miller first, so started in the middle! I found it utterly fascinating, meticulously researched and detailed and learned a huge amount about why my favourite author became the person she did. But most of all I just simply enjoyed learning about three women, who I knew nothing about. This is a great book for fans of these authors but also I think is just a really important piece of history and research, well worth a read! ...more
This guide by the zine creators Weird Walk takes you through Albion’s strange and ancient landscapes, standing stones, pagan rituals and connections tThis guide by the zine creators Weird Walk takes you through Albion’s strange and ancient landscapes, standing stones, pagan rituals and connections to folklore, the seasons and nature.
Each season you can walk a different landscape, from the well known Avebury and Stonehenge to the lesser known (certainly to me) Bix Bottom and The Devil’s Arrows. Packed with information and walking notes and stunning photography it’s a fabulous book. I really enjoyed it, especially the little walking note extras. Something a bit different, happy to walk on the weird side!...more
Haynes has done it again with this latest book, detailing and guiding us through mightiest of the Greek goddesses. She is passionate about her subjectHaynes has done it again with this latest book, detailing and guiding us through mightiest of the Greek goddesses. She is passionate about her subject, forensic in her research and delivers a book that is gripping, educating and full of vibrant wit.
‘A footnote in mythography…No wonder she’s intolerant. I’m starting to feel insecure just writing about her, and I don’t even have a husband.’
We have the Muses, who various people seem to want to compete with. We are better singers than you, well obviously you’re not going to be better than the Muses and so there are many losers including the daughters of Pierus who got turned into chattering magpies.
Hera gets a bad rap but in truth is not as bad as everyone thinks, she is passionate about helping heroes, defending Greeks at all costs in conflict and protector of married women. She, along with her daughter Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth held huge sway over women in ancient times, her power was not a joke.
We also read about Aphrodite, Artemis, Demeter, Hestia and The Furies.
‘Now I’m beginning to think the question of how an omnipresent goddess can just disappear is fascinating in itself.’
Haynes references modernity and how today we are still obsessed with Greek myth and their goddesses, from Katniss Everdeen as a modern Artemis in film, to art - see Botticelli’s Venus,posed with weight on one foot, hips curving to one side, boobs on display, lots of long luscious locks and all the endless variations down the years, to just the way we behave. I think my favourites are Hestia, just quietly going about her business but doesn’t take any £**t and also The Furies; very misunderstood if you ask me!
‘Just when you thought you couldn’t like her more, this versatile goddess turns out to be the patron Saint of carbs.’
They have reach these women, right into our lives today. This book is just epic, if you haven’t read any Natalie Haynes, get to a bookshop! ...more
This book is simply mesmerising. It is an evolutionary history of life on the wing. When you actually stop and think about it flight is mind boggling.This book is simply mesmerising. It is an evolutionary history of life on the wing. When you actually stop and think about it flight is mind boggling. Birds, insects, butterflies, bats; they all do it with ease, flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. It’s a bit of a miracle really and has evolved in hugely varied ways.
Within its pages, we encounter fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the crested pterosaurs of the Mesozoic Era, from hummingbirds, to the dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. And my favourite, the pigeon.
This is hugely detailed, accessible and written with Parikian’s easy style that makes you smile, he is just so enthusiastic! I have been out and looking up far more at all the flying animals big and small and just glorying in the wonder of it. Flight, is amazing. ...more
Over the course of Guatemala's thirty-year armed conflict -the longest ever in Central America-over 200,000 people were killed. During Argentina's milOver the course of Guatemala's thirty-year armed conflict -the longest ever in Central America-over 200,000 people were killed. During Argentina's military dictatorship in the seventies, over 30,000 people were disappeared. Today, forensic anthropologists in each country are gathering evidence to prove atrocities and seek justice. But these teams do more than just study skeletons-they work to repair families and countries torn apart by violence. In Still Life with Bones, anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for evidence not only of how they died but how they lived. Hagerty discovers the rituals in the naming and placement of the dead and also how they connect the past to the future. There is great loss and tragedy, with families dealing with unimaginable grief that transcends anything that I could possibly imagine. Reading this I have found that I am astounded by the honesty and sensitivity with which this is written. It is detailed, not shying away from the horror of the atrocities carried out in these countries and although the extent of these terrors is huge, it is the small things and the humanity that really opens your eyes.
This is a hugely powerful and informative read but is so, so moving at the same time. I would recommend this one !...more
A down and out Irish poet, the head waiter at the Shakespear’s Head tavern in Covent Garden and a celebrated London Courtesan, in 1757, became bound tA down and out Irish poet, the head waiter at the Shakespear’s Head tavern in Covent Garden and a celebrated London Courtesan, in 1757, became bound together by publication of Harris’s List Of Covent Garden Ladies. A scandalous and salacious work, outlining the names and specialities of the sex workers of the capital- it became a bestseller.
Beyond its pages it reveals a glimpse into the lives of those who lived and died by its profits, motivated by poverty, love, aspiration and shame.
I loved Rubenhold’s book The Five and was totally astounded by it. This book similarly was outstanding. Meticulously researched and written with care, yet is full of tension and drama of the lives of the three people associated with The List. I was particularly taken with the life of Charlotte Hayes and the other women briefly annotated in the list. We get to hear of them only through the prism of men’s eyes and as Rubenhold rightly states, we cannot really know their thoughts on the life they lead or the reasons for it. The men did not care and had no interest in that beyond their own self interest and desire.
An absolutely cracking read, really interesting, dramatic and shines a light on women that history chose to ignore. ...more
‘Countless novels, poems and plays have been penned in the City Of Light, from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, to Francoise Sagan’s A Certain Smile and ‘Countless novels, poems and plays have been penned in the City Of Light, from Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, to Francoise Sagan’s A Certain Smile and modern day bestsellers. As well as visiting writers Paris has also given us its own writers including Colette and Emile Zola. All of them leaving their marks in Paris. Starting at the turn of the eighteen century and taking us to the present day via bouquinistes, hotels, Parisian hideouts and more this book has everything a bibliophile could need!’
Well this little guide arrived at just the right time for me as I am off to Paris in April and this will be in my bag!
Stuffed full of fabulous bookish places to visit from museums, to cemeteries, from bookshops and cafes to hotels, I now have a growing list of things to do on my trip! I’m especially pleased as I am currently reading both Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and The Rougon Maquart Cycle by Emile Zola both mentioned in the guide with places to see including The Pantheon, Notre Dame, Le Bon Marche and Rue de Bruxelles. Plus I want to see the Pere Lechaise cemetery, the Rodin Museum and fit in bookshops such as Shakespeare and Company, The Abbey Bookshop, Librarie Galignani and Bibliotheque Mazarine.
This is an easy to read guide with lots of information about bookish people associated with Paris, locations to visit with address details. The only thing I would have liked was a good map showing all the places mentioned but I’ve dropped a lot of pins on my Google maps instead ...more
A very enjoyable gallop through a few of the medical mysteries that have had people puzzled for years. I really enjoyed dipping in and out of this oneA very enjoyable gallop through a few of the medical mysteries that have had people puzzled for years. I really enjoyed dipping in and out of this one, from what killed Jane Austen, to James Barry, the doctor who fooled everyone as a man until her death. It's an easy and interesting read. ...more
The Linchpin Writer: Crafting your novels key moments - John Matthew Fox
Linchpin moments are where the reader decides whether to abandon the book or kThe Linchpin Writer: Crafting your novels key moments - John Matthew Fox
Linchpin moments are where the reader decides whether to abandon the book or keep reading (the beginning, the end of a chapter). These are the moments when you have a climax (surprise, main climax, emotional climax) and in this book the author teaches you how to nail these.
I am not a writer, but what I am is an avid reader and this book really engaged me as to why I love certain books. It was insightful and useful and should I ever choose to write a book will be helpful. There were several tips and hints that stand out from this book. The first is to read the first paragraph of a few books in your genre, what stands out, does it hook you in? This is the first lynchpin and it really made me think, what catches you as you read, what will make you keep reading on. There are a few books I’ve DNF’d after the first paragraph, when I’ve just thought it’s not for me. Secondly -Dialogue, what is the characters first line? It is usually significant- this made me deep dive back into many of my shelves books to read first lines and it tells you tons about that characters trajectory in a nutshell. Thirdly -Situations give emotions to the reader, don’t name it, there are micro emotions on every page, strive for wonder, you know as a reader what that feels like, it’s rare, it’s intangible and individual but it is there in books and it can be written. I could go on with this but there’s so much to take in and with exercises to do, it is one of those books that you will constantly refer back to.
It has an easy to read style, is simple and has great tips for budding and not so budding writers. There are lots of examples to illustrate his points using well known authors work which is helpful, and as the true scientist I am, I do like evidence to back up a theory! It has made me read with new eyes, this is a break down of how books work on us as readers. I’m not convinced that I will ever write a book but I think also it will make me a better reader and who knows maybe one day I will write!
‘You cannot save the world with your book, but you can reach your tribe: those who know you, those who live around you, those who care about your topic. If you have limited expectations—if you truly understand what Gandhi called your “insignificance”—then you are free to write what you are meant to write, and reach who you are meant to reach.’ ...more
Diving into the mycological world with Aliya Whiteley is just wondrous. This book is so engaging, beautifully written and so easy to read. With gorgeoDiving into the mycological world with Aliya Whiteley is just wondrous. This book is so engaging, beautifully written and so easy to read. With gorgeously lyrical writing, you can really tell how much she loves her subject. It is full of incredible facts, you will not be in the least bit disappointed!
‘I had been given one inviolable command - don’t touch- but I loved to look at them.’
Just to have a glimpse into the incredible and largely unknown world of fungi is a joy and I promise you won’t look at mushrooms the same way again. I spent a lot of time googling images of various fungi, the one of pilobolus discharging it’s spores is incredible, one of the most powerful forces in nature and mesmerising! It grows on cow poo and so has to be flung far from said poo for the spores to land on grass, which is then eaten and starts it’s lifecycle again…nature is cool ...more
‘Many people think of Agatha Christie as the elderly ‘duchess of death’… and fail to realise what a total man- magnet she was in her youth.’
Lucy Worsl‘Many people think of Agatha Christie as the elderly ‘duchess of death’… and fail to realise what a total man- magnet she was in her youth.’
Lucy Worsley is the Queen of History and here writes a fascinating biography of Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime. With access to personal letters and papers that have been rarely seen, Worsley unpicks the life of the most successful female writer in history. Christie spent her career pretending she was just a housewife not the record breaking author that she really was. But she was an amazing woman, she surfed, loved fast cars, collected tons of knick knacks, was addicted to buying houses and wrote about life in the 20th Century through the prism of murder.
I found this book utterly fascinating, it reads as you would expect from Lucy Worsley, chatty, really readable but meticulously researched. I found so much new information to interest me. Christie’s first ideas of writing a detective story came from her work in the hospital dispensary and her training there. Her time during the First World War and her time as a VAD, when she was of the same social standing as a doctor outside the hospital but inside was nothing and disrespectfully treated were really interesting to read.
‘Agatha’s experience…helps explain why the Great War marked the beginning of the end for a deferential society.’
It does of course cover Christie’s elusive disappearance for 11 days in 1926. The details have been so hashed over enumerate times in many different ways, I’m not sure it adds a huge amount to the swirling maelstrom of information, but it is very well laid out, with a historians eye for detail and analysis and is certainly sympathetic towards Agatha. I do think I agree with Lucy’s assessment however and although it shredded Christie’s reputation at the time, it in the end added to her air of mystique.
‘She had a quality of elusiveness…a resistance to inquisitive probing, an inbuilt armour.’
Her meeting of Max Mallowan, her second husband, I really knew little about and the war years were also interesting too. It has a lot of information, Agatha Christie is built up in my mind a bit like our late Queen. You think you know them but you don’t, yet they can be quite a presence in your life, with a sheen of glamour. And I found it really wonderful to be able to learn more about the real woman.
‘Miss Marple, and her creator, hold no illusions. They believe that evil may be found everywhere. In any relationship. In any one of us.’
The Marple chapter is really interesting and shows the development of her character over time and the increasing darkness that she shows, as one character in her final outing, Nemesis says , ‘the most frightening woman I ever met.’ I think the sanitised TV versions have a lot to answer for with this and makes me all the more determined to re read the Marples in order again. I think perhaps Worsley has the most love for this character too. The are a few spoilers from the novels dotted through the book, but if like me you have a brain like a sieve it won’t make a huge difference!
This is very readable, fascinating and enthralling read for Christie fans from one Queen of History about the Queen of Crime....more
This book is outstanding! In this book we join writer and swimmer Bonnie Tsui as she explores the unique skill of swimming from the five angles of surThis book is outstanding! In this book we join writer and swimmer Bonnie Tsui as she explores the unique skill of swimming from the five angles of survival, wellbeing, community, competition and flow. And how a swim can take different moods, different functions, depending on the time of day, the time of year, the time of life. There are stories of polar swim champions, a Baghdad swim club, Olympian athletes and modern-day samurai swimmers, It takes us around the world in a real celebration of swimming.
‘It’s a reminder to slow up and be awake to the real connections we have while we have them.’
I have to say I just loved this book, one of my favourite reads of the year. Yes, I am a swimmer but we can all relate to this book and the very human stories within it. As humans we are drawn to the water, the sight of it, the sound of it, the colour of it, it does something to us and to swim in it is great for our fitness and mental wellbeing. I loved all of it but there are a couple of incredible stories that really got me;
Kim Chambers, one of the best marathon swimmers in the world and has swum the Oceans Seven, the equivalent of the seven summits. This is the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Molokai Channel, the Catalina channel, the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the Tsugaru Strait in Japan and the North channel from Ireland to Scotland. This feels to me somehow a more incredible feat than that on land, is it because of the unknown beneath you? The unknowingness of water? She became a swimmer after a life changing injury having to learn to walk again. Her strength and fortitude is incredible, I just thought what an icon, but she is a regular lady just like me who swims!
‘These are the swimming stories I carry with me.’
There is Guolaugur Friopórsson ( sorry my keyboard does not have the correct notation to spell correctly), known as the human seal. He has a biological quirk of two to three times more fat than usual and allowed him to survive and swim to safety the distance of 6 kilometers when his fishing vessel went down off Iceland in forty one degree Fahrenheit water in 1984! I was just so astounded when I read this story. I couldn’t believe it and it really touched my heart.
‘I started out thinking the pleasures of swimming were all about immediacy- about being in the present- but I have found the act of swimming can serve as ritual, too.’
This books is a pleasure to read, my holiday choice to read by the ocean and then get in and jump and bodysurf the waves. We are all connected to the water, read this to understand why.
After a traumatic lockdown Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it off to a strip of neglected woodland. This is an intimate journal across aAfter a traumatic lockdown Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it off to a strip of neglected woodland. This is an intimate journal across a summer, embracing the challenge of how to live well when emotions threaten to tumble. How to help nature flourish, with friendships made, finding solace and hope and how to live life with imagination and bravery.
‘It was believed lightening would not strike a house that held a thunder stone. And so these fossils were placed on top of clocks, under floorboards, over stable doors…But there are some storms that thunder stones cannot prevent..’
This book is full of raw emotion, illness goes off like a hammer blow, the grief, the honesty of being stuck in the pandemic and the all consuming fear of helplessness are laid out for the reader
‘The Howl is an animal that stalks me now. A silent, unpredictable, chest-wrenching, bent-double, dribbling-out-of-the-mouth-that-will-not-close sorrow.’
It was for me an extremely powerful, heartwrenching and truthful read. It is not all doom and gloom however, don’t get me wrong! Some of this felt joyous to me, there are so many little wins in this book and the beauty of nature and living in it and having it surround you was wonderful too.
‘Thunder strikes and forges a new star on a stone. The urchin nestles deeper in the silt. Seas rise and ice retreats, and a woman finds a fossil in the rubble and places it in her pocket.’
This book is a keeper, quietly powerful, calming and eloquent. The lyrical beauty of the words wash over and through you as you read. Not to be missed.
Well this is a timely book for me. It dropped on my doorstep as I was entering my second✨BOOK REVIEW✨
ON THE SCENT - Paola Totoro and Robert Wainwright
Well this is a timely book for me. It dropped on my doorstep as I was entering my second experience of Covid.
The first time in August 2021 myself, my husband and my son all had Covid and we all experienced varying degrees of hyposmia ( a partial loss of smell), loss of taste and parosmia ( when existing smells are distorted). I first realised something was wrong when we had a curry for dinner and I couldn’t taste or smell it, my husband the same. My son couldn’t eat roast potatoes as they tasted like the smell of scrambled eggs which he thought was disgusting! Thankfully for us the changes sparked by the viral infection waned so our smell and taste returned. But for some including the author of this book, they experienced anosmia ( a complete loss of smell) and this is hugely affecting and is akin to amputation.
Smell ( and taste) rules our lives and we take it for granted, it is part of every facet of our being. This book takes us on an olfactory discovery, via the world of those born without smell, how it can be an indicator of declining health and how the scientific community came together in the past 2 years with research to help people with sensory loss. Plus loads of amazing facts about the sense of smell to boot!
It is easy to read, hugely interesting, yes I’m a scientist and I love stuff like this but honestly it’s such a great read! It felt like reading a dystopian thriller, reading how Covid unfolded globally and the fight to have anosmia recognised as a symptom was so frustrating, it was clearly a symptom but the powers that be ignored it and with that the spread of the disease could have been slowed and many thousands of lives could potentially have been saved. This has really made me feel angry in some ways but I’m not going to get political until we get the chance to vote again, but you can see how clunky and slow the wheels of power really are with this.
The personal stories of people’s experiences of anosmia were spellbinding and very moving, so many people have been affected and yet it is dismissed so often, there is so little help available.
I have started sniffing everything again, to reassure myself I can still smell and to remind myself and take note of this most nostalgic of senses and to not take it for granted.
This is a brilliant five star read, accessible to all, powerful, educating and enthralling.
With this we get a potted grisly history of the Tudors. I love the Tudor period, we all know the stor House of Tudor: A Grisly History - Mickey Mayhew
With this we get a potted grisly history of the Tudors. I love the Tudor period, we all know the stories of Henry and his 6 wives…divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived and this covers those infamous wives plus some other forty five events in total from that time. So we take in the demise of Richard III to the botched execution of Mary Queen of Scots and a lot in between. There are beheadings, burnings, disease and being hanged drawn and quartered.
It is readable, interesting, gruesome and entertaining too. It contained information that I already knew but a lot that I didn’t, it has been well researched and was an enjoyable read. Very detailed there were some parts that I read out to my teenage kids- having just recently visited Hampton Court it tied in nicely with what we had seen and another visit to the Tower of London with the instruments of torture!
A gruesome and entertaining read, one you can dip in and out of and bring the tudors to life!
✩✩✩✰
Thanks to Pen and Sword books for my copy of this book and spot on the blog tour...more
The Love That Dares - Letters of LGBTQ+ Love and Friendship Through History Rachel Smith and Barbara Vesey
Do you write letters? I used to write lots esThe Love That Dares - Letters of LGBTQ+ Love and Friendship Through History Rachel Smith and Barbara Vesey
Do you write letters? I used to write lots especially when I was at University. Now it’s usually a little post-it but I still write little sentiments even if I’m saying I’m popping out for milk, adding a little heart or I love you. So this book, a fabulous collection of letters of love and friendship from writers of the LGBTQ+ community through history is such a joy to read.
There is passion, desire, sadness, longing, joy and also secrecy. The fact that the LGBTQ+ community has, for a very long time, had to hide their feelings really saddens me. This book is testament to the fact that everyone loves and deserves to be loved and that will continue for as long as people walk this Earth.
There is such a variety of letters. We have poetry from Sappho, describing her passionate love of women, including Anactoria, who is the subject of the poems in this book. We have letters between Anne Lister and Anne Walker, some of you may recognise from the TV series Gentleman Jack, Oscar Wilde, Vita Sackville-West and my favourites between Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.
This beautiful illustrated book was my new year treat to myself. I have had my eye on it for a while, I really love Angela Harding’s work which I firsThis beautiful illustrated book was my new year treat to myself. I have had my eye on it for a while, I really love Angela Harding’s work which I first came across on the cover of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.
Angela uses a combination of Lino and vinyl cutting and silk screen to create wonderful imagery and a very distinctive look.
This book moves through the seasons, taking inspiration from the natural world. There are fields, skies, waves and water with birds and wildlife; snapshots of the English countryside that are so calming to look at.
I have a real soft spot for nature writing, literature and illustrations. I’ve spent a few evenings slowly looking through this book and it is one that I will return to through the year. ...more
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