A Life in Science by Richard Dawkins Brief Candle in the Dark is the second volume of Dawkins's autobiography; the first part, An Appetite for Wonder I reviewed here. Rather than being a chronological account of his life, this volume is set out by subject and is all the more interesting and enjoyable because of …
Category: Books
The Midnight Palace
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (translated by Lucia Graves) Re-post of original review Secret Societies and Ghostly Terror by Bookheathen) ‘Never mind the number of candles on your birthday cake,’ writes Zafon in his introduction to The Midnight Palace, ‘for those in the know, it’s what lies beneath them that matters’. Zafon’s first four published novels …
Something Nasty in the Woodshed
I was reminded just the other day on going through my 'Reader' of this piece, which I wrote some time ago. As this is one of my very favourite books, I thought I would re-post my review today! Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons 'You would expect, by all the laws of probability, to find …
Maddaddam
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 Other Queen
by Philippa Gregory (A novel of the captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots) Mary Stuart must be the most written about person in the whole of history, and with good reason. Pick your side: she was either a hopeless (and foolish) romantic, a woman too trusting for her own good, a victim of one conspiracy …
Runaway
by Peter May Of the three thrillers I read over the past couple of weeks, I managed to review only two, so the third is coming up today. However, before tackling that, I want to say thanks for a second Versatile Blogger Award, a nomination by Cindy from My Book File. For anyone who missed …
Magda Green Books 