Grief is the Thing with Feathers is a slim almost surreal novel which through prose, dialogue and poetry traces the grieving of a father and two young sons coming to terms with the death of their wife and mother. Their life in chaos, Crow arrives in the middle of the night and takes on the … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
One Minute Book Review – Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell
Epitaph is the sequel to Doc and has all the strengths of that novel. It continues the story of John Henry ‘Doc’ Holiday and the Earp brothers and carries it through to the aftermath of the shootout at the O.K. Corral. The novel opens in 1880 in Tombstone with Josie Marcus, the daughter of Jewish … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell
My Reading – March 2017
Nutshell by Ian McEwan Miss Nobody by Ethel Carnie Epitaph by Maria Russell Doria One Woman's War and Peace : A Nurse's Journey Through the Royal Australian Air Force by Sharon Bown
Book Review – Miss Nobody by Ethel Carnie
The 19th century produced a great many female novelists from Jane Austen at the beginning of the century through the Brontes and Elizabeth Gaskell to Ellen Woods to name some of the most famous. Writing at the same time as Ethel Carnie at the start of the 20th century were, among others, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy … Continue reading Book Review – Miss Nobody by Ethel Carnie
One Minute Book Review- Fair Helen by Andrew Greig
In Fair Helen Andrew Greig takes the Border ballad 'Fair Helen of Kirkconnel Lea' and weaves a story of intrigue and doomed love in the Scottish border lands of the late 16th century. The not quite reliable narrator is Harry Langton cousin of Helen Irvine and best friend of Adam Fleming, the Scottish Romeo and … Continue reading One Minute Book Review- Fair Helen by Andrew Greig
In My Garden – Lithops
This week it is more a case of On My Windowsill. Lithops,a genus of succulent plants in the ice plant family Aizoaceae, are native to southern Africa. They are commonly know as stone plants or living stones. Lithops were discovered in 1811 by botanist John Burchell when he picked up what he thought was a … Continue reading In My Garden – Lithops
One Minute Book Review – Nutshell by Ian McEwan
Nutshell by Ian McEwan is a tale of murder and deceit told by an unborn child near to term. This is no ordinary child - he is well read and erudite with a strong grasp of world politics, his understanding drawn, no doubt, from his mother’s avid podcast listening. He has an understanding of familial … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Nutshell by Ian McEwan
Revision, revision, revision
I regard writing as in some ways like sculpting with clay. In sculpting the starting point is a design and an armature (the framework on which a clay sculpture is moulded), with writing most of us begin with a general idea of the story we want to tell and the arc it will follow even … Continue reading Revision, revision, revision
One Minute Book Review – Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
I have resisted reading this book for a very long time. Workmates have raved about it, swooning over Jamie Fraser, but those who know me best warned me away from it – ‘You won’t like it – too many things for you to criticize’. Although I do have a nose for historical inaccuracy, I don’t … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
In My Garden – The Apricot Tree
The apricot tree is a deciduous fruit bearing tree of the genus Prunus. It is grown in all parts of the world and is thought to have originated in Armenia; however, it may also to have been grown in ancient India. A medium sized multi-branched tree, it has a dense spreading canopy. It grows well … Continue reading In My Garden – The Apricot Tree
Catherine Meyrick 