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“It was salutory to remember, I told myself, that writers and other creative artists do not relish other people’s ideas. They usually have more than enough of their own, and well-meant suggestions only add to the burden of their already over-stocked minds.” Miss Read, Farewell to Fairacre (1993)
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My last 5 posts
- Farewell to Aotearoa May 28, 2020
- More from down under May 8, 2020
- Free-range April 30, 2020
- Creative thinking April 28, 2020
- More from NZ April 25, 2020
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Category Archives: History
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
A well-governed shark
It’s time for another progress report on my reading-the-sea project. For this post, I had planned to include notes on Melville’s Billy Budd, but I’ve been busy having fun instead — fun reading other books, that is, so BB will … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Classic, History, Seafaring
Tagged Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Nathaniel Philbrick, Robert Kraske
24 Comments
The voyage so far
As promised, here’s the first of what may be several updates on my tour of books set on water in honor of Herman Melville’s 200th birthday. Initially I had planned to make these reviews brief, but, well, you know … … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Classic, Fan fiction, History, Seafaring, Travel
Tagged Holling Clancy Holling, Sena Jeter Naslund
19 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
Super-Tramp!
No, not the 1970s prog-rock group (although their song, “Take the Long Way Home” may be apt for what will become obvious reasons). For this month’s Wales Readathon, Book Jotter has selected William H Davies’ Autobiography of a Super-Tramp as … Continue reading
Posted in Am reading, Dewithon, History, Travel book, Wales Readathon
Tagged William H Davies
4 Comments
Brueghelian Obsession
The fourth and last in a series of novels involving the search for lost art. But a new slant here: this novel is for adults. Headlong, Michael Frayn (1999), Picador, 342 pp. Remember that Rod Serling story, where the Nazi … Continue reading
Posted in Art, History, Mystery
Tagged Michael Frayn, Pieter Breughel the Elder, W H Auden
2 Comments
Unexpected endings
Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses, Bess Lovejoy (2013) Lovejoy gives us a list like no other: what happened to the mortal remains (bones, ashes, or otherwise) of historical figures, from Alexander the Great to Hunter S. … Continue reading
History for the curious
Frances and Joseph Gies, Women in the Middle Ages (1978) A brief review here. Gies and Gies, famous for their intelligent books on Medieval Europe, provide a guide to the lives of women from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the … Continue reading
Posted in History
5 Comments
Spiritualism and the Mafia
Norman Lewis, Jackdaw Cake (1985) Here’s a life for you: Raised by your grandfather and three odd aunts. Reclaimed by your spiritualist parents when the aunts go doolally. Married into a Sicilian family (probably mafiosi), then separated from your partner by WWII … Continue reading
