The Book Trunk

chrisharding53

  • A Sparkling Comedy of Manners

    The blurb on the back describes Love’s Shadow, by Ada Leverson, as ‘a wry, sparkling comedy of manners’ and, just for once, the blurb is quite right – the novel, a social satire on well-to-do Edwardian life, is light, witty,… Continue reading

  • The Summer Reading Pile

    Well, Midsummer’s Day has been and gone, though the weather has been so dreadful if feels as if summer has never even arrived. June is over, and July is here. And even if the weather doesn’t improve, I can curl… Continue reading

  • Saturday Snapshots of Privies and Prams!

    This Victorian earth closet makes me think there;sa lot to be said for progress! This, as some of you probably know, is a picture of a Victorian ‘privy’ or ‘earth-closet’,  with a couple of chamber pots stored on either side, and… Continue reading

  • Talking Trains with John Betjeman

    The older I get, the more I like John Betjeman, especially his prose, and particularly Trains and Buttered Toast, an anthology of his radio talks, mostly from the thirties, forties and early fifties. The subject matter is varied, but his… Continue reading

  • Lady Into Fox

    Some of the books I’ve read this year do seem to be rather odd – and David Garnett’s Lady Into Fox is the most peculiar of all. Basically, it tells the story of Mr Tebrick and his wife Silvia, who… Continue reading