READING IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS

The Snow Kimono by Mark Henshaw, published in 2014 by Tinder Press ‘In Japan, we have a saying:  If you want to see your life, you have to see it through the eyes of another.’ Spoken by one of the main characters early on, this provides the rationale for the narrative...

Sally Rooney’s Normal People has bounced back to the top of the bestseller lists. This is not surprising after the successful TV dramatisation which is now available on BBC iPlayer. The novel was first published in January 2018 and hit the bestseller charts mid 2019. ...

I have become quite a fan of podcasts over the last year having thought they were complicated to locate, down-load and listen to.  Podcasts are currently experiencing a boom in listener numbers So if you haven’t moved into the podcast world here are some simple tips:...

Almost too late (The Glasgow Climate Summit 2020)  By Juggy Pandit   Friendly Thames our friend no more Now spreads a mile from shore to shore. Angry waves lap ancient domes And modern towers of rusting bones.   The dark and viscous oil we burnt The trees we...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...