Last night I went to a meeting of the Abingdon Writers Group to which they’d invited author Ali Shaw to speak, and opened it up to non-members as part of the 2012 Abingdon Arts Festival. First we heard from several members of the group who talked about their experiences, the benefits of having a support Read More
Month: March 2012
Who is John Wayne? Who killed Susan? Does it matter?
Newton’s Swing by Chris Paling Chris Paling has written nine novels, but it’s taken those nine to get some real recognition via being chosen as one of Fiction Uncovered’s 2011 crop of the best authors you haven’t read yet with his book Nimrod’s Shadow. That book is in my TBR pile, but I discovered I Read More
A brilliantly entertaining “Not a Sherlock Holmes” novel…
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R King Novels which adopt other authors’ characters can be a bit hit or miss – I think I was the only person who thoroughly enjoyed PD James’s Pride & Prejudice sequel. With the benefit of hindsight, I totally saw it as a continuation of the TV series though, rather than Read More
Cosy Weirdness in Whitby
Never the Bride and Something Borrowed by Paul Magrs Just before I started this blog, I read a book that gave me a sustained bout of chuckling all the way through. On the face of it, Never the Bride was a cosy mystery set in Whitby, with two old ladies doing the sleuthing… But underneath Read More
Bottling Things Up, or Bottling Out?
The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge A couple of weeks ago, Simon at Savidge Reads chose three books he was going to read before his imminent thirtieth birthday, (and he asked for more recommendations for forty books to read before he is forty.) One of the three was based on a suggestion of mine Read More
A classic adventure
The 39 Steps by John Buchan (1915) Richard Hannay is newly returned from living in South Africa, and he’s already bored with London. Everything seems to be happening elsewhere, especially in the Near East, and the Greek Premier, Karolides, seems to feature. “It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep Read More
Penguin Blogger’s Night
I had the privilege to be invited to the second annual Penguin Blogger’s Night which happened yesterday. Having been last year, I knew it would be a great evening, and I made all the arrangements so that I could go. It was held in the fifth floor bar at Waterstones Piccadilly – amazingly I’d never been in Read More
Book Group Report – Land of the grey
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder After the racy delights of Jilly Cooper’s Riders last month, we went for something completely different for our February read. Stasiland by Anna Funder is a work of investigative journalism, chronicling the lives of some people who lived in the GDR before the Berlin Wall came Read More
For blacker than black, read super-noir
This post was republished into my blog’s original timeline from my lost posts archive. The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson Scene: A diner in Central City, Texas; it’s the early 1950s. A man walks up to the counter to pay his bill… The proprietor shoved back my money and laid a couple of cigars on Read More
Reference Books 1 – Internet 0
My daughter had to make a poster with ten facts about Abingdon where we live for her Geography homework tonight. She wanted to search out really interesting things; putting “Abingdon is on the river Thames” and a picture of a boat wasn’t good enough for her, (good girl!). So she started researching on the internet Read More
