Category: Non-fiction

Matisse the Master – A Life of Henri Matisse: Volume 2, 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling

29/12/2013

You might remember Matisse (and others) hitting the headlines in November with the discovery of a hoard of Nazi-confiscated artworks.  At the time I was already reading this biography, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2005. It was a difficult book to settle into and not because eight years and several … More Matisse the Master – A Life of Henri Matisse: Volume 2, 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling

At Home by Bill Bryson

08/07/2013

This is an ambitious distillation of social history using the rooms of a Victorian vicarage, Bryson’s home, as the ‘hook’, crammed to the rafters with interesting facts.  Who knew that the youngest chimney sweep apprentice was aged only three and a half? Or that the boating accident on the Thames with the highest number of … More At Home by Bill Bryson

The Etymologicon – A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool)

24/10/2012

Did you know that: International company Shell took that name because it originally sold shells before it diversified into oil; Wikipedia, etymologically speaking, means fast child; In golf, Bogey means a score for the hole of one over par whereas it originally meant par; Cappuccino evolved from Capuchin monks and pants from St Pantaleon; Torpedo … More The Etymologicon – A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool)