The Book Trunk

chrisharding53

  • A Disappointing Read

    The Rose of Sebastopol is one of those novels where the idea of the book sounds far more interesting than the book itself turns out to be. Author Katharine McMahon’s notes and website, which describe her inspiration and research, were… Continue reading

  • Bittersweet Tales of WW2

    Good Evening, Mrs Craven, by Mollie Panter-Downes, has to be one of my ‘best reads’ of 2011. Here are 21 short stories set in the Second World War, about the people who didn’t fight, the non-combatants, who kept the home… Continue reading

  • Christmas comes to Narnia

    It’s Christmas Eve, which is why the blog is red, and I’m celebrating with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis, in an old Puffin edition with illustrations by Pauline Baynes. The children hear the sound of… Continue reading

  • Celebrating Christmas

    No list of Christmas books and readings could be complete without something from the Bible – after all, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. So here is the opening passage from St Luke’s Gospel, and to go… Continue reading

  • An Astounding Christmas Truce

    At Christmas 1914 many of the troops fighting in the First World War – British, German, French and Belgian – spontaneously stopped fighting and held a truce. All the way along the Western Front men celebrated Christmas, singing songs to… Continue reading