Birthdays
Isn’t it remarkable how things link together? Whilst deciding whether to finish Lionel Shriver’s Post-Birthday World or not, a notification came through from Hillingdon Library on 3 books about birthdays. The latter clearly for...
Category: Review
It’s a little icy – review of The Ice Age by Brian S John
I took a detour from my usual reading material and read The Ice Age: Past and Present (1977) by Brian S John (and in his own words) – it was on my bookshelf having...
Black Iris: Poems from Jordan by Alexander Williams
I met Alex at the premier showing of Heaven’s Rage (Leslie Tate and Mark Crane) in October 2017. Since then, Alex has joined the TSL team as an author. His book Chrysalis is due...
3AM: Wonder, Paranoia and the restless night – Angela Kingston
I met Angela in about 2013/4. We were both teaching. In those days, even lecturers at some universities were required to undetake a teaching course. Angela was new to teaching art curation and I...
Oh for a princess…
Little did I know that the day I started reading Sue Hampton’s Pomp and Circumstances (2012) that the ‘breaking news’ which would appear on my phone was the announcement by the Duke and Duchess...
The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough
Do you remember The Thorn Birds? I remember watching the television series, well my lasting image of it is Richard Chamberlain dressed in purple robes but more than that I cannot tell you. Recently,...
The Dial Up
On Thursday night, 14 December, 11 days before Christmas, I joined Alex Williams at The Kitchen, Croxley for an open mic evening with The Dial Up. It’s not my usual scene, but having just...
Shades of Blue
It’s a small world. Going to hear a select group called Shades of Blue perform in Aldenham Church on 9 December 2017, we (TSL directors) spotted a familiar face in the audience – it...
The hare with the amber eyes – Edmund de Waal
I should have enjoyed this book. So many people recommended it and it contained a combination of factors I enjoy in a book: fact, linking the past with the present, World War 1, biography,...
Shared cultural experiences in “London Cape Town Joburg” by Zukiswa Wanner
London Cape Town Joburg begins where it ends. You have a suspicion of what happens but confirmation and the detail only appear in the last chapter. All through the book, the question lurks –...