My 14th year!
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After her marriage, Harriet Vane wonders, “… am I really a writer or only a writer faute de mieux? If one was really a writer, then one must write, and write now, while the hand still kept its cunning, while the technique was still in one’s head, while one was still in touch with one’s public. A little slumber, a little rest, a little folding of the hands to sleep, and one would drowse into an endless lethargy, waiting for a dawn that might never break.” Dorothy Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh, Thrones, Dominations (1998)
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My last 5 posts
- Don’t look now … October 14, 2021
- Banned Books Week 2021, 7th day October 2, 2021
- Banned Books Week 2021, 6th day October 1, 2021
- Banned Books Week 2021, 5th day September 30, 2021
- Banned Books Week 2021, 4th day September 29, 2021
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Category Archives: Fiction
Creative thinking
REMINDER: This was written in February, aka BCEW (before COVID evicerated the world). I can’t think of many novels about new ideas — about how the thinkers came up with them, rather than the consequences to the world — but … Continue reading
Posted in Am reading, Australia, Fiction, New Zealand
Tagged Bruce Chatwin, Sylvia Ashton-Warner, WG Sebald
11 Comments
Furthest south
To kick-off my themed posts over the next few weeks: I give you books set in New Zealand and Australia, many by Kiwi and Aussie authors. If you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know why. Here, though, I’ll … Continue reading
Posted in Am reading, Culture clash, Fiction, Historical fiction, New Zealand, Travel
Tagged Keri Hulme
1 Comment
In the near future
Lory at The Emerald City Book Review recently wondered if her readers had reading plans for the year. Excellent question, if only because it gives me a chance to prep you for what’s to come on this blog. My usual … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Australia, Fiction, Historical fiction, History, New Zealand, Travel
11 Comments
Sea Fever
Matching my current reading focus is John Masefield’s “Sea Fever” (quoted here, in full, from The Poetry Foundation’s website): I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Classic, Fiction, Seafaring
10 Comments
Sea cruise, baby!
No need to get excited. I plan to travel virtually, in honor of Herman Melville’s 200th birthday. Over the next few months I’ll be aboard stories set on ships (with perhaps a rowboat or two) that will take me up … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Classic, Fiction, History, Seafaring
Tagged Herman Melville
8 Comments
In Welsh hills
Another review to add to Paula Bardell-Hedley’s Wales Readathon. Chatwin’s novel of 20th century life in the Black Hills of Wales wasn’t in my TBR pile for this month, but it called to me from the pages of Anthony Bailey’s … Continue reading
Posted in Am reading, Dewithon, Fiction, Historical fiction, Wales, Wales Readathon
Tagged Bruce Chatwin
7 Comments
Backward Rambles
Little Follies: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (So Far) (1995), Eric Kraft What do you remember from your childhood? How far back do your memories go? More importantly, how much can you trust your memories? … Continue reading
