Category: Biography

The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather

23/04/2021

Easter 2013. Hubby had entered a golf competition at his golf club, meaning he would potentially be playing golf every single day across the whole weekend: one round on Good Friday, two on Easter Saturday, one on Easter Sunday, two on Easter Monday. This was the third year running and I’ll admit, I saw my … More The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather

Footnotes – A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers by Peter Fiennes

24/07/2020

If you read my last blog you might remember I suggested the literary tourists among you might consider visiting the Mauritshuis art museum, The Hague, to check out Carel Fabritius’s The Goldfinch and Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, paintings which inspired novels by Donna Tartt and Tracey Chevalier respectively. I have succumbed to … More Footnotes – A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers by Peter Fiennes

The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein

21/06/2019

When I was growing up, phrases such as ‘no-one likes a show-off’ and ‘pride comes before a fall’ were common family currency, ‘getting above yourself’ was a crime, and punishment by being ‘taken down a peg or two’ was swift and inevitable. In short, as a child I was taught not to place too high … More The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein

A Life of Picasso Volume 1: 1881 – 1906 by John Richardson

24/05/2019

Mona Lisa Sunflowers The Scream Even if you know nothing much about art (like me) and you hear the name Leonardo de Vinci, Van Gogh, and Munch, then I bet you’ll immediately think of the paintings just listed. If you think a bit longer and harder, of course, you might come up with some others, … More A Life of Picasso Volume 1: 1881 – 1906 by John Richardson

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

25/08/2017

Hoylake Community Cinema ‘pops-up’ one Friday evening every month in the local community centre.  The films cater for all styles, tastes and genres, taking in everything from black on white classics (It’s a Wonderful Life), docu-films (He Named Me Malala), contemporary sci-fi (Ex-Machina), and foreign language films (Mustang). So when the Diving Bell and the … More The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan

28/07/2017

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king- dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstacy! Then off, off forth on swing, As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a … More Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan