The Book Trunk

chrisharding53

  • Why Didn’t I Like This Book?

    I do not like thee Dr Fell, The reason why I cannot tell. As far as I’m concerned this traditional children’s rhyme sums up the way I feel about ‘Brooklyn’, by Colm Toibin. It’s what  Frances at http://nonsuchbook.typepad.com/ recently referred to… Continue reading

  • Goats and Cabbages with the ‘Real’ Robinson Crusoe

    Today in1709 Alexander Selkirk – the man regarded as the ‘real’ Robinson Crusoe – was rescued after being marooned on an uninhabited tropical island for more than four years. The journey back to England took another two years, and once… Continue reading

  • The Most Annoying Heroine

    Just because something is old doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good – and A Girl of the Limberlost, hugely popular though it may have been in its time, has not aged well. Even allowing for changing tastes over the last century… Continue reading

  • A Tragic Tale from WWI

    One of the most heart-rending tributes at the National Memorial Arboretum is Shot At Dawn, which commemorates the men executed for cowardice or desertion during the First World War. Altogether more than 300 members of British and Commonwealth units were… Continue reading

  • The Last Chapter

    It’s Thursday again, and time for a Thought or, in this case, a picture. The Last Chapter was painted by Robert Braithwaite Martineau in 1863, and I like the way the woman has obviously moved off the sofa and is… Continue reading