READING IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS
As most of us are probably self-isolating and books and reading will hopefully become an increasingly important part of our lives, we have decided to bring you regular updates on books and authors in the news.
Barnes Book Groups
Barnes is clearly a hot-bed of book group activity. Almost everyone I know belongs to one – some to more than one. I have done a very unscientific calculation – based on population, age, socio-economic and gender data to estimate that there are at least 45 book groups...
Readings from the Rose
As a means of bringing joy and creativity into homes during these uncertain times, the Rose Theatre, Kingston, is launching the ‘Readings from the Rose’ initiative today. Several prominent actors and creatives in the industry have filmed themselves reading their...
Books of the Week
David Walliams’ Slime has oozed to the top of the UK book charts with Lee Child’s Blue Moon at number 2. Blue Moonis the 24th Jack Reacher thriller which has just been published in paper-back. This is another lone-wolf thriller about dirty money and even dirtier...
Lynette Roberts – Gods with Stainless Ears
To celebrate VE Day I thought I’d take this opportunity to post about an extraordinary poem by Lynette Roberts, the Welsh modernist poet. Roberts published two books of poetry with Faber and Faber in 1944 and 1951. She became friends with her editor, T.S. Eliot, and...
VE Day – All Day It Has Rained… by Alun Lewis
Alun Lewis was a Welsh poet who came from the mining community of Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley. Following scholarships to Aberystwyth and Manchester Universities he became a journalist, poet and short story writer. Despite being a pacifist, Lewis enlisted in the army...
Online Literary Festivals
A number of book festivals are looking at how they can take their festivals on-line. The Big Book Weekend is a 3-day virtual festival running from 8th– 10th May that brings together the best of cancelled British Book festivals. It features the biggest names in books...
The Barnes Bookshop
All books featured in our blog are available to buy from Barnes Books. You can do this by email to [email protected] or by phone, 020 8741 0786. Venetia at the Barnes Bookshop is operating a free local delivery service; payment can be taken over the phone and...
Books of the week
The best-selling book across all genres and formats is Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light. This is the third and final book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. The first, Wolf Hall, named after the Seymour family’s seat in Wiltshire, is set in the period 1500 to...
Book related podcasts
Several have been launched over recent years A couple we particularly recommend: Cheerful Book Club: the book club for optimists. Ed Milliband and friends in conversation with authors, mostly focusing on contemporary non-fiction. But a recent episode, 27/2/20,featured...
Some fun for you
How many of the 100 books that shaped the world have you read? The BBC's list of 100 novels that have shaped the world