My Twenty Books of Summer

summer

Cathy, at 746 books, is hosting another 20 Books of Summer event.  It will be my first.  There are so many reasons why I shouldn’t do this.  I don’t have a book blog (although you might be forgiven for doubting that); I already have numerous book reviews that I ought to be writing anyway (on the book blog I claim not to have) and I do have a propensity to drop out of blogging altogether for extended periods of time without warning.  So really, it’s not sensible.  But it involves lists and I love lists, especially book lists.  Which raises another reason for not joining in: I already have a list of summer reading planned.  At least, I did have.  Since Cathy announced the start of the challenge I’ve been fiddling about with the original plan.  Then other people began posting their lists which gave me ideas for how I might make my own even better and the selection changed again.  Finally I think it’s ready.   Continue reading “My Twenty Books of Summer”

Fowey Festival 2019

The debate could have gone on for much longer; there are as many versions of Daphne’s relationship with Cornwall as there are people with a story to tell.

When Ali first posted about her plans to run a Daphne du Maurier Reading Week, she mentioned that she shares her birthday with Daphne – 13th May – and also that the Fowey Festival is always timed to include that date.  Started in 1997, the festival was originally named after Daphne.  It is now called the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature and has broadened in content although du Maurier and her work continue to be a primary focus.  It seems fitting that I end my series of Daphne posts with an account of my festival experience this year, limited though it was. Continue reading “Fowey Festival 2019”

The View from Here: Imagine ….

There is a narrative in the landscape which is universal.  It is a narrative which transcends fact and fiction, past and present, lives real and lives imagined. A narrative which speaks to the soul.

Imagine a small coastal town perched on the edge of an estuary, houses peppering the hills, streets steep and narrow.

polruan 1

This is Polruan … Continue reading “The View from Here: Imagine ….”

The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier

Ali’s Daphne du Maurier reading week is well underway and I’m enjoying reading all the contributions.  I have chosen to read the first of Daphne’s novels, The Loving Spirit, one that I’ve been promising myself for a long time.  And alongside it I’ve read three other books:

Reading Daphne by Ella Westland

Jane Slade of Polruan by Helen Doe

Myself When Young by DDM Continue reading “The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier”

The View from Here: an early May snapshot

For just a few fleeting weeks, green sings and has its moment in the sun. 

May 1st is considered in some quarters to mark the coming of summer.  The meteorological beginning of summer comes later, and this year’s weather would support that.  In this Corner of Cornwall there has been very little merry-making in the merry month of May.  May, thus far, has been cold and stern with northerly winds which carry a sharp bite and a nip of frost, which has blackened tender tips and kept me largely indoors.  But not always.  There have been interludes of sunshine even if temperatures have remained stubbornly low.

Continue reading “The View from Here: an early May snapshot”

Dewithon Diary iii: rounding off

While any good writing will transcend national borders it is still in literature, and perhaps most of all in the novel, that national identity and character are often best reflected.

It’s about time I rounded off my Dewithon experience, late as usual.  Including the two books still unfinished, I notched up twelve books. Continue reading “Dewithon Diary iii: rounding off”

The View from Here: snatches of spring

This year we seem to have been dancing back and forth, dallying between the seasons on a daily basis.

Since April arrived, we have been thrust back into winter.  Those balmy February days which turned my head and had me harbouring thoughts of an early spring seem a long way back. Continue reading “The View from Here: snatches of spring”

The Green Hollow by Owen Sheers: How to talk about it

As I researched the details of what happened at Aberfan, I realised this was a historical story with a deeply urgent contemporary resonance: a story of what can happen when a community is run by a corporation.
(Owen Sheers)

On Friday 21st October 1966 a slag heap shifted.  It slid inexorably towards a small mining village in South Wales, destroying several houses and at least one farm.  The worst hit building was Pantglas Junior School.  In total, 144 people were killed.  116 of them were children.  The name of the village was Aberfan.

I remember this disaster; I was a contemporary of the children in that school.  I remember the shock waves and the disbelief and later, the country’s sadness.  I would have been nine years old. Continue reading “The Green Hollow by Owen Sheers: How to talk about it”