by Margaret Atwood '.... [A]nyone who liked smelling daisies, and having daisies to smell, and eating mercury-free fish, and who objected to giving birth to three-eyed infants via the toxic sludge in their drinking water was a demon-possessed Satanic minion of darkness, hell-bent on sabotaging the American Way and God's Holy Oil, which were one …
Author: Andrew G Lockhart
My name is Andrew Lockhart and I grew up in Coatbridge, Scotland. I studied at Glasgow University. After spending three decades in planning, statistics and international sales and marketing, I am now an author, family historian and owner of Magda Green Books. Apart from writing (and reading great books) and blogging, my other interests are science, music of all sorts, and traveling the world.
The Mysteries of Udolpho
by Ann Radcliffe 'As the carriage wheels rolled heavily under the portcullis, Emily's heart sunk, and she seemed, as if she was going into her prison .... her imagination, ever awake to circumstance, suggested even more terrors than her reason could justify.' I've been neglecting the books on my Classics Club list for a while …
Speeches That Changed The World
Like yesterday's post, this one is going to be a bit different from my usual book reviews. I picked up this book for a very much reduced price at a book sale. Introduced by historian Simon Sebag Montefiori, it contains speeches by diverse prominent figures from the past, from Jesus Christ and Mahommed to Adolf …
Fun With (German) Grammar
Christian Morgenstern - - taking the "P" out of poetry * Now for something totally different! A little while ago, on a visit to Germany, a friend introduced me to a poet whose work seems to defy attempts to translate it into English. His name was Christian Morgenstern (the poet, not the friend) and he …
Not 'arf cut ……
Interview with local writer Rupert Ashby Rupert Ashby is the author of Izzie, the novel about a young girl growing up on the waterways of southern England. About the story: In the years before World War II, Isobel Horne is a boat girl with a burning ambition to learn how to read. Encouraged by her …
'Et tu, Brute?'
Emperor by Conn Iggulden The supposed last words (or nearly last words) of Julius Caesar are best known from the play by William Shakespeare. Whether he said anything of the sort - or anything at all - when he was fatally stabbed, remains in doubt. But, of course, Shakespeare was writing drama, not history. Latin …
Ballade of True Wisdom
Quotations Day 3 I've been spending most of the day in my garden. With temperatures ranging from 33 degrees on the patio at the back to 36 in front of our white garage door, it isn't the ideal weather for physical effort. But as rain is expected (actually it's started now), I thought it best …
I took her hand in mine …
For my second quotation, responding to the tag challenge set me by Anne at Inked Brownies, I have picked another from the Classics: 'I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening …
"The more I see of the world…"
Well put, Jane!
The Sister
by Louise Jensen 'I did something terrible, Grace. I hope you can forgive me.' What has Grace's best friend Charlie done that's so terrible? Grace doesn't know, but in the four months since Charlie's death the question has lain heavily on her mind. When the girls were fifteen, they buried a memory box with photos …
Magda Green Books 