Angelica
A spiritual adviser, Anne Montague, is summoned to the Barton's home to exorcise any pervading evil. So far, nothing out of the ordinary for a good Victorian chiller.
A Very Bookish Holiday
I alluded to bookish doings abroad in my last post ... the London trip was amazing, at least from this bibliophile's point of view
Reads on Writing
I thought that in the spirit of back to school I'd offer you a few of what I think to be fine books on the art of writing
The Secret History
The Secret History really is, a mystery - not so much of whodunit but a whydunit. The novel explores the idea of how absolute ambition corrupts absolutely.
The Masterpiece
The Masterpiece set off a few shockwaves, not just among literary critics who loved to grouse about Zola's gritty and extreme approach to realism
In the Pursuit of Love
First, make no mistake that The Pursuit of Love is an English novel. So the bias -- and the root of the satire -- is all British
The Daughter of Time
The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, is unputdownable. Perhaps it's because the book is really a paper chase through history and the historical record.
Paddington Here and Now
Hard to believe that Paddington Bear celebrates his fiftieth this year. What with one mishap after another, who'd have thought he'd have made it so far?
Esther Waters
Esther Waters by George Moore, published in 1894, is a novel about making difficult choices. Or, as perhaps, hedging your bets
Gentlemen & Players
Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris is a psychological thriller centred around an exclusive boys' prep school in England. A Machiavellian plan is hatched...
The Fairy Tales
The Fairy Tales are also appropriate, despite their darker elements, for children who have perhaps overindulged on the sugar-coated Disney versions
The Adventures of Frog and Toad
Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Are Friends, published in 1970, is the first in a series of four books about these two famous friends
The Moonstone
The Moonstone is a very long tale about a precious gem stolen from the brow of a Hindu deity that wreaks havoc on an English family
Blaming
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor is the story of an unlikely friendship that forms between Amy, an Englishwoman, and Martha, an American