I went into a bookshop today. This didn’t use to be a notable thing, but then the world isn’t quite the same as it used to be. Pop asked...

That would be me - not the actual baby. Although this is a picture of the baby being geeked which I know is off topic, but she's so...

ELIZABETH TAYLOR, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Tomorrow is 39 weeks. There is still no baby. Well, there is a baby, but she is still...

Penelope Lively - again - How it all Began & Roald Dahl's My Uncle Oswald Sometimes there are days that are just a bit less hard. ...

PENELOPE LIVELY This year has not been the year of the many books - for some reason I seem to have picked stupidly long books and then...

Mary Wesley just did not write enough books. A couple of years ago Waterstones told me to buy The Camomile Lawn.  I don't always do what...

Grandma sent us a book. Sally is always excited by post that is addressed to her, and a big book of activities was indeed an exciting...

Love Somerset Maugham - finally got round to reading his long one. I developed a bit of a Somerset Maugham obsession a few years ago - I...

Another list? A list of a 100 brilliant books by women has just been published for this year's Hay Literary Festival. I had a look...

Blake and Huxley. "To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity...

THE FANTASTIC FLYING JOURNEY AND THE FANTASTIC DINOSAUR ADVENTURE Some of the things you remember from your childhood aren't quite as...

I'm a day late, but then so was the parcel. Women and books - what more could you want? I love this series. We are trying to raise a...

I expect this is going to sound snobby... I needed an antidote to the relentless and somewhat nonsensical carnage of the last of the 5th...

Humn. I find myself somewhat ambivalent. I quite enjoyed the film, but the book less so - perhaps it was going back over the same thing...

A note on the title of my blog. By training I'm a Classicist, but by day I mostly teach (and let's be honest, read) English - so these...

JOHN WYNDAM Really good! I like to have the occasional author binge - the current object is John Wyndham. I read the Day of the Triffids...

OR Can you make it to the last page? Almost a year ago I started a course on Dystopian fiction through Oxford University's Continuing...