Desperate Reader

'A Short history of fairy tale'... I've bought a couple of Marina Warner's in the last couple of years but not quite got...

The latest edition of Shiny New Books has been posted including a contribution from me recommending Sarah Randell's 'Marmalade'....

I wish I could say that my preserving habit was under control and that I could stop at any time but it looks a lot like that would be a lie....

Some books have to come to you as presents; books you quite want but somehow hesitate to buy because there's always something more press...

I learned to knit at primary school, where we had weekly lessons with a lovely woman called Zena, and when it was accepted as a matter of co...

This is the second Penelope Lively I've read - I really didn't enjoy the first one ( Making It Up ) but thought I should give her an...

Mackenzie is best known for ' Monarch of the gle n' (much better than the TV series, or at least nothing like the TV series and very...

I really don't understand what the good people at Hesperus were thinking when they chose these covers; they are appalling to the point o...

A book that could be summarised as being about a man who reads a lot of books about boys meeting girls, or sometimes girls meeting boys, who...

January perhaps isn't the ideal time to write about such specifically Christmassy fare - it is after all 10 months before it's time ...