Archive for 'Book Review' Category
‘More English Fairy Tales’ by Joseph Jacobs
I’ve spoken before on this blog about how much I love folk tales and fairy stories and I think that what the Victorian collectors such as Andrew Lang, Jeremiah Curtin and Joseph Jacobs did is amazing. Every time I visit Cecil Sharp House in Camden I silently give thanks for all the work that Sharp [...]
‘April Lady’ by Georgette Heyer
Oh, Georgette Heyer, how I wanted to like you! How I wanted to find your writing delightful, engaging and witty and your stories compelling and absorbing. How I looked forward to returning to the world of Jane Austen’s novels through such a prolific author that I could stay in that world for months of reading [...]
‘Through England on a Side-Saddle’ by Celia Fiennes
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m attempting to read more non-fiction this year, and so far I seem to be accomplishing most of that in the form of travelogues. There’s something endlessly fascinating about seeing a place through the eyes of someone else, whether it’s somewhere I’ve been before, somewhere I know like the back of [...]
‘Miss Buncle’s Book’ by D. E. Stevenson
Although I buy the majority of my books second hand, whether from charity shops, Ebay or Amazon Marketplace, occasionally I will allow myself to purchase a new book or two if they are particularly special. When I discovered sometime in early January that I had to go to Charing Cross for a meeting, meaning that [...]
‘The Victorian Chaise-Longue’ by Marghanita Laski
Although I’ve only read one book published by Persephone before now (the delightful Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson) this, combined with the numerous reviews I’ve read for books from this publisher on other blogs, has been sufficient to create a preconception in my mind of what a Persephone book will typically be like. I expect them [...]
‘Tam Lin’ by Pamela Dean
O I forbid you, maidens a’, That wear gowd on your hair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh, For young Tam Lin is there. Fairy tales and folk stories were a huge part of my childhood and have continued to be so as I’ve become older. I had them read to me by my parents; [...]
‘Diary of a Nobody’ by George and Weedon Grossmith
One of the best things about taking part in the Victorian Literature Challenge is that it has made me aware that the scope of Victorian literature is much wider than I had previously anticipated. It isn’t just doorstop sized books featuring worthy governesses, scheming gentlemen and the deserving poor; there’s also a lot of slimmer, [...]
‘Lucia in London’ by E. F. Benson
Oh, E. F. Benson, I should never have doubted you! Apologies are also due to the book man in Winchester, whose judgement I was rather doubting after being a little underwhelmed by my first experience of reading a Lucia book. However, it was enjoyable enough for me tocontinue on with the series in spite of [...]
Review: ‘The Rivals’ by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Going to see a play without having read it beforehand always makes me feel a bit like going to see a band play live without knowing many of their songs: slightly awkward and often rather lost. So, when I decided to get tickets for myself and the Old English Thorn to go to see the Haymarket’s [...]
‘Up the Junction’ by Nell Dunn
I never fail to be impressed by the variety of books published by Virago. Although there have been many relatively recent authors published as Virago Modern Classics, most of the books from this imprint that I’ve read so far have been those written in the early twentieth century. Set in London and first published in [...]