I live in Hoylake, on the north-western tip of the Wirral peninsula. I used to spend an hour or more on trains each week travelling to work and if possible would read for the entire journey, which is how this blog came into being. I changed jobs a few years ago and don't travel to work by train anymore but I'm sticking with reading and blogging. Old habits die hard.
When I was a toddler a large dog attacked me, or rather a large dog ran from a neighbour’s garden and charged me to the ground. My Mum yelled at the neighbour, the neighbour yelled at the dog, I sprawled on the pavement bawling my head off, and the dog took the little doll I’d … More Learning to Talk: short stories by Hilary Mantel
My job requires me to travel anywhere in Britain and in the last three years it’s taken me to places I’d never visited before, such as Southampton. Southampton, like my home city of Liverpool, built its wealth from its port. I was anticipating a grand waterfront, not necessarily buildings as iconic as the Liver Building … More English Journey by J B Priestley
translated from French by Anna Moschovakis My two granddads fought in World War One, my maternal granddad in Belgium, my paternal granddad in Iraq (where he died; there’s a Memorial at Basra commemorating him and the other 40,000 casualties of the Mesopotamia campaign). A generation on, my dad fought in World War Two in North … More At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
My father was an alcoholic, albeit a functioning one. He would come home from work on a Friday and drink a bottle of whisky. He’d drink another two bottles on Saturday and a half-bottle on Sunday. He generally wouldn’t go to bed no matter how much my mother pleaded or cajoled, preferring to stay up … More Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Hubby recently confessed to an affair with a younger woman, who became pregnant. That was nine years ago and the child, a boy called Luca, is now eight. Hubby still visits the woman, Emily, and rents a flat for her, though he swears he doesn’t love her and maintains contact only because of Luca. I … More The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch
I’m a nightmare to buy books for. If I really want to read it, nine times out of ten I’ll already have it; if I don’t really want to read it…well, there’s always a permanent backlog of ones I really do want to read next to my bed. I’m even worse when it comes to … More Miscellanea
With COVID knocking our usual travel plans on the head (jetting off to Greece) Hubby and I spent a week exploring the Northumberland and East Yorkshire coastline. We ended our trip in Whitby, which seemed the perfect excuse to brush the dust off my copy of Dracula. As you might know, Whitby is where the … More Dracula by Bram Stoker
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Ploughboy, Thief – And what about a Cowboy, Policeman, Jailer, Engine-driver, Or Pirate Chief? What about a Postman – or a Keeper at the Zoo? What about the circus Man who lets the people through? Or the man who plays the organ, and the other man who … More The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Back when I was learning the rules of football watching Match of the Day with my Dad, referee’s assistants were called linesmen, time added on at the end of the game was called injury time and there wasn’t a female in sight. Not on the pitch, nor pitch-side, nor in the studio. Football was something … More Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
My father was a Barnardo’s boy. In 1926, aged seven, he was put into the Liverpool Home for Destitute Children and Orphans because his war-widow mother, Agnes, was too poor to keep him. I’d grown up knowing he was brought up in an “orphanage” but took it as read that both his parents were dead. … More Twopence to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forrester
whatcathyread 