Category Archives: Blog

I don’t know about you but I’m finding the number of bad things going on in the world at the moment pretty hard to swallow. Just when I think it can’t get any worse, something else crawls out from under a stone. Here in the UK, there are things going on in the political arenaContinue reading “Taking the no. 11 bus & other circuitous ramblings”

This morning, the weather was lovely and my partner and I went for a bike ride. By the time we got home, I felt pretty good. In fact, I’ve been feeling okay for a while now. Which brings me to ask – how has lockdown been for you?    I’ve been thinking about this sinceContinue reading “Lockdown – How has it been for you?”

… from words for a couple of days. Did a bit of painting instead. Nothing like a cute kitten to lift the spirits.

It would have been churlish of me not to mention poetry in this seven-day book challenge. So, on this my last day, my book of choice is my current squeeze, Fishing in the Aftermath by Salena Godden … … one of the most creative, arresting and inspiring poets I’ve come across. I bought this bookContinue reading “Seven Day Book Challenge – Day Seven”

Day six and in the home straight. Today’s book is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon … … an old fashioned whodunnit in an alternative reality – the alternative reality being Sitka, a Jewish homeland in Alaska with a lease that’s about to expire. The protagonist, Meyer Lansdman, is a down-on-his-luck homicide detective withContinue reading “Seven Day Book Challenge – Day Six”

Is it day five already? My book of choice today is Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami … … the sublimely surreal story of a writer, whose name we never know, who is broken and just about operating on a basic daily level. The writer is haunted by a woman he once had a relationshipContinue reading “Seven Day Book Challenge – Day Five”

My day four book of choice is Daniel Deronda by George Eliot … … which is not just, as the title implies, about Daniel Deronda. It’s a tale of two physically beautiful people who are driven by an inner darkness – Deronda himself and Gwendolen Harleth. Both characters are outsiders in their cloistered worlds and,Continue reading “Seven Day Book Challenge – Day Four”

My day three choice is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce … … the story of a lonely man who does something incredible and completely out of character and in doing so, finds a way to accept and forgive himself. Full disclosure. I love a good journey book. By that I don’tContinue reading “Seven Day Book Challenge – Day Three”

My day two book of choice couldn’t be any further from day one – unless of course you count the fact that they’re both written by men. Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens … … really is much funnier than I expected it to be. How’s that for a review? I only read it last yearContinue reading “Seven Day Book Challenge – Day Two”