At the time of writing it’s only two days ago (with Hubby on a boys-night out) that I binge-watched Series 5 of Ghosts on BBC iPlayer – the British series, not the US version. If you’ve never seen it, the premise is that a young couple, Alison and Mike Cooper, live in the huge, run-down … More Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
At the time of writing Hubby and I are in Greece. Year after year we holiday here and one of the reasons we keep coming back is the food. We both absolutely love Greek food! My favourite dish is Afelia, which consists of chunks of pork marinated in red wine overnight, then cooked until the … More The Kids by Hannah Lowe
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
The 2010s were the first decade of my blog. Well, almost – I began whatcathyread in 2011. I’ve read a lot of great books in that time, although I certainly can’t claim to have read everything that was published! But looking back on the books I did manage to read that were published in the … More 10 Best Novels of the Decade: 2010 to 2019
‘Without families you don’t get stories.’ At the time of writing I’m on holiday on Corfu. In normal life my brain is chock-full of jobs-to-do but on holiday I have time to think, which isn’t always a good thing. One night (admittedly after several glasses of the local wine) I got upset about not having … More The Cut Out Girl by Bart Van Es
My Dad was a big fan of Westerns. I grew up watching The High Chaparral and A Man Called Horse; by the time I was five I was hooked. I named a teddy bear Blue Boy (after the character Billy Blue Cannon in The High Chaparral) and wrote a letter to Santa promising to be … More Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
Last month I went with hubby to see comedian Richard Herring perform his F**k I’m Fifty stand-up show at Liverpool’s Hot Water Comedy Club. In one bit of the routine Herring compared being a child to being on the beach with your back to the sea. Then when you’re older, … More Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
One of my best friends at school was Jenny. Jenny was dotty about animals. Now it’s fair to say I was brought up in an animal-friendly household. We always had pets: mainly cats or, if dad got his way, a dog. For a short time we had goldfish and at one point my sister had … More H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
My RE teacher relished moral dilemmas. She’d take a Commandment, thou shalt not kill, or thou shalt not bear false witness, say, and then question us to explore their outer limits. Would you murder one person to save the lives of many? Would you lie to hide a painful truth? Faith Sunderly, the teenage heroine … More The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
When hubby and I were renovating the money pit we now call home we got to know a fair few local tradesmen. A year later we bought an investment flat and mostly asked the same tradesmen back again. In the meantime one of their wives had self-immolated. Even typing it gives me goose bumps. There … More The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
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