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Category: Historical

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

24/03/2023

I first fell in love with a book when I was five. It was a Ladybird Book called Chicken Licken, a tale of a little chicken who creates panic among the other birds (Henny-Penny, Ducky-Lucky, Goosey-Loosey, Turkey-Lurkey etc.) by running around telling them the sky is falling down when an acorn falls on his head.  … More The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

28/10/2022

Tunisia, September 1991.  A younger, blonder version of me is sitting on a wall within the ruins of ancient Carthage. The photograph is exactly how I remember it: the foundations of a once-great city, a few pillars still defiantly erect, a few trees reasserting themselves, date palms and olives, not enough to provide shade from … More The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

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Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

26/08/2022

The Hillsborough tragedy was the biggest sporting disaster in British history. At the start of the 1989 FA cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, police opened an exit gate into already-full ‘pens’ at the Leppings Lane end, which resulted in a fatal crush. Hubby’s brother, then 18, was at the match, though thankfully he … More Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

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The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

26/02/2021

My mother once told me you only ever find out what someone is really like when they come into money unexpectedly. I guess mum’s point was that a sudden windfall shines a spotlight on whether a person is generous by nature or only interested in number one. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately … More The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

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The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel

22/01/2021

With her head tucked underneath her arm She walks the Bloody Tower With her head tucked underneath her arm With her head tucked underneath her arm [From With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm by Sammy Gay (1934)] It would normally be pantomime season (oh yes it would) so it seems kind of fitting to … More The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel

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Love Is Blind by William Boyd

18/12/2020

Before you rush to hit the “unsubscribe” button, this is very much a one-off. If you are a regular reader of What Cathy Read, I get a mention now and again as “Hubby”, and come across as basically a man of simple tastes, who is most at ease when hitting something with something else, or … More Love Is Blind by William Boyd

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Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

23/10/2020

A few summers ago, Hubby and I took in the capitals of Scandinavia and the Baltic: Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn with their medieval old towns; scenic Helsinki; compact, cultured Oslo; and wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. I’d had it in my head to go to Copenhagen ever since I was a kid growing up in the 1970’s … More Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

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Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

20/03/2020

Hubby and I spent a week in France last summer to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. 30 years! Where did they go? When you’ve no kids, you live in a Peter Pan-like bubble where you never seem to get any older and time doesn’t seem to pass until…bam! A significant anniversary hits and it’s hard … More Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge

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Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley

20/09/2019

At the time of writing, Prime Minister May is in France to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. By the end of the week she will have resigned, after a relatively short premiership dominated by Brexit. At the D day ceremony a 90-something veteran tells a BBC reporter that it took so much … More Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley

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Theory of War by Joan Brady

15/02/2019

“A war between two people is not all that different from a war between two countries.” My paternal grandfather, William Smith, was killed in action in World War I.  Not long afterwards his wife died of ‘grief’ (malnutrition and exhaustion, in my mother’s view) and their five children were put into homes run by Dr … More Theory of War by Joan Brady

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Reviews

  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
  • Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe
  • Some of the books on my reading list for 2023…
  • Quarantine by Jim Crace
  • Spies by Michael Frayn
  • The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
  • Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
  • Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
  • The Kids by Hannah Lowe
  • The Promise by Damon Galgut
  • Learning to Talk: short stories by Hilary Mantel
  • English Journey by J B Priestley
  • At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
  • Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
  • The Sacred and Profane Love Machine by Iris Murdoch
  • Miscellanea
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
  • Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
  • Twopence to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forrester
  • The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (translated by Michelle Hutchinson)
  • The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
  • Elegies by Douglas Dunn
  • The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor
  • The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather
  • The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
  • The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
  • Love Is Blind by William Boyd
  • Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (translated by Marilyn Booth)
  • Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
  • The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles
  • The Bird of Night by Susan Hill
  • Footnotes – A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers by Peter Fiennes
  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
  • Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
  • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
  • Every Man For Himself by Beryl Bainbridge
  • The Accidental by Ali Smith
  • The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor
  • 10 Best Novels of the Decade: 2010 to 2019
  • Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
  • Emily Dickinson – poems selected by Ted Hughes
  • The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es
  • Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley
  • Milkman by Anna Burns
  • Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill
  • The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein
  • A Life of Picasso Volume 1: 1881 – 1906 by John Richardson

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