Desperate Reader

Probably along with most women of my age I had the Anne of Green Gables books when I was a child, liked them very much and essentially forgo...

'An Episode of Sparrows' is the second of the current Rumer Godden's that Virago have released as part of their children's ...

After what feels like an eternity but has in fact only been 4 months it's time for me to go on holiday again. The Scottish Borders are c...

I read the first two books from the Emily series earlier this year ( here and here) then with great self control managed to hold back on...

Here in Leicestershire we've not by any means had the worst of the weather but it's still been grey, wet, and today really quite w...

I loved the ' Anne of Green Gables ' books as a child reading my way through the series a few times but until fairly recently was ...

It had occurred to me to save this book as a Christmas eve treat but I've never been very good at waiting for treats so I just read it...

Some books (like this one) finish far to soon. I'm having a definite pre Christmas wobble (will I have the energy, patience, and enough ...

It's been a very busy week, so much so that I'm currently slumped on the sofa fighting to stay conscious - the only thing energisin...

I found ' Tin Toys ' whilst browsing in my much missed old branch of Waterstones, (closed for 2 weeks now and I can't bring my...

I had plans for this week - mostly involving rather more reading and blogging about Barbara Pym but a series of minor frustrations and di...

This was my bargain buy from the bank holiday, it did indeed turn out to be a harrowing read but almost a hundred years after it's fi...

I left town this weekend to spend in the countryside, my weekend has been rather quieter than the one Bainbridge gives us here. Highlight...

' Peking Picnic ' was written at much the same time as ' Heat Lightning ' and both are in some way concerned with finding a...

My reading life generally follows a path - I'll pick up a book, and it will lead onto another, and then another,  until either it fee...

Of all the Rumer Godden titles Virago have just released this is the one I was most anticipating - it wasn't one I'd heard of befo...

I had until now successfully avoided reading any Beryl Bainbridge, or even being very aware of her; if I had noticed her books at all it ...

Ever since I was a child one of the things I wanted when I grew up was a library of my own (and doesn't every young girl) but I've ...

I read this one well before Christmas but have been procrastinating over writing about it - amongst all the delights of reading older ficti...

The shine has worn off Christmas a bit for me now (I've had two months of it already and the milk of superhuman patience is drying up...