‘Autumn Term’, Part Six
Chapter Twelve: Tim Loses Her Temper Poor Nicola is feeling a bit left out as Tim and Lawrie plan their play, so she throws herself into her Tidiness Monitress duties with excessive zeal. Meanwhile,...
View Article‘Autumn Term’, Part Seven
Chapter Fifteen: A Form Meeting Third Remove have a meeting to discuss the play and figure out the casting, even though Tim hasn’t finished writing it yet: “Tim liked doing things which could be...
View Article‘Autumn Term’, Part Eight
Chapter Seventeen: The Prince and the Pauper Exams are over (“Third Remove had consoled one another by remarking loudly that they’d all done equally badly”) and the day of the play dawns. Even though...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What I’ve Been Reading
There are times – for instance, when the world appears to be heading to hell in a handbasket – when even the most politically engaged, newspaper-addicted reader needs to escape into some frothy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Olive Kitteridge’ by Elizabeth Strout
I’ve been engrossed in this collection of short stories, most of them set in a small coastal town in Maine and all connected in some way to the central character, Olive Kitteridge. Olive, a retired...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Favourite Books of 2016
It’s not quite the end of the year, but here are the books I’ve read in 2016 (so far) that I loved the most. But first, some statistics. I only read 46 new books this year (new to me, that is), fewer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead’ by Paula Byrne
I really enjoyed Mad World by Paula Byrne, which is an engrossing account of the people who inspired Evelyn Waugh’s novels – specifically, the troubled Lygon family of Madresfield Court, so similar to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘The Book That Made Me’, edited by Judith Ridge
Disclaimer: I’m acquainted with several of the people involved with the creation of this book. But I wouldn’t be writing about it here if I didn’t like it – I’d just pretend I hadn’t read it. The Book...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Indonesia Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation’ by Elizabeth Pisani
This is a fascinating book about a year spent travelling around the Indonesian archipelago, written by a multilingual British woman who has spent much of her adult life in this diverse nation. She...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Growing Up Gracefully’, Part One
Memoranda readers may recall The Years of Grace: A Book for Girls, a fascinating (and often unintentionally hilarious) collection of wise advice edited by Noel Streatfeild. She must have realised...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Growing Up Gracefully’, Part Two
In ‘Correct Dress’, Mr James Leasor explains how much “good manners in dress” have changed since the war. Wartime clothes rationing meant most people had to ‘make do and mend’; nighttime bombing raids...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Growing Up Gracefully’, Part Three
Each chapter of Growing Up Gracefully has a short introduction by Noel Streatfeild and her introduction to ‘Manners Abroad’ contains the following sage advice for those travelling to Australia: “I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Growing Up Gracefully’, Part Four
If there’s some logic to the sequencing of the chapters in Growing Up Gracefully, I’ve yet to figure it out. Following Miss Laski’s philosophical discussion of the nature of eccentricity, we jump to Mr...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Growing Up Gracefully’, Part Five
Before I discuss etiquette for engagements and weddings, a small digression. I was curious about Nancy Spain, the writer who was so entertaining about Eating for England, because her name was vaguely...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘The Marlows and the Traitor’ by Antonia Forest
I’ve just handed my latest manuscript over to my editor, hooray, so I’m rewarding myself with the second of Antonia Forest’s Marlow series, The Marlows and the Traitor. As with Autumn Term, I’ve...
View Article‘The Marlows and the Traitor’, Part Two
Wednesday Afternoon: The Hidden Sea Back at the hotel, Mrs Marlow, usually unflappable, goes into the “most wowing kind of flap” when she hears about Peter and Nicola’s near-death experience on the...
View Article‘The Marlows and the Traitor’, Part Three
Thursday Morning: Return to Mariners In yet another example of the Marlows’ permissive parenting style, it is perfectly okay for Nicola to wander about the quay at dawn by herself and hang out with...
View Article‘The Marlows and the Traitor’, Part Four
Thursday Afternoon (1): Lawrie Runs for It This book may be an action-packed thriller, but there’s still room for some droll humour. In this chapter, it’s revealed that Lawrie’s grand escape is...
View Article‘The Marlows and the Traitor’, Part Five
Thursday Afternoon (2): Shipwreck Now we’ve gone back a few hours and are with the children and Foley on the Talisman. (I should note that the non-linear narrative and shifting point of view are being...
View Article‘The Marlows and the Traitor’, Part Six
Friday Morning: Breakfast at the Lighthouse Ginty and Peter wake up in the lighthouse berating themselves about their role in the situation they’ve found themselves in, but Nicola is characteristically...
View Article