Category: Non-fiction
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A Perfect Book!
“I had never noticed before that the canal here was as clear as a chalk stream. Yellow water lilies drooped like balls of molten wax on the surface. Near the edge of the water drifts of newly hatched fish hung in the shallows,” writes Richard Mabey in the opening chapter of The Unofficial Countryside. And…
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What Shall I Read?
Calloo! Callay! Oh Frabjous Day! My first parcel of books has just arrived from Little Toller, and it will definitely not be the last – they are soooooo BEAUTIFUL!!! I was only going to buy this, for #ReadIndies month, because Karen made it sound so irresistable: But when I looked at the website there were…
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Square Haunting
Dorothy L Sayers who I mentioned in my last post, also appears in this one – Square Haunting, by Francesca Wade, which is about five women who broke new ground in their professional and private lives between the First and Second World wars, and all lived in the same London Square (though not at the…
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Agatha in Mesopotamia
More Agatha Christie – not fiction this time, but her recollections of the time she spent in Mesopotamia with her second husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowen. I spotted Come, Tell Me How You Live whilst browsing the internet, and it conjured up memories of long-ago history lessons when we learned about Mesopotamia, the land between…
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One Woman’s Year
January…. In this Month, let not Blood, nor use physick, unless necessity constrain thee; beware of taking cold, for Rheums and Plegm do much increase this Moneth; it’s hurtful to fast long, to drink White Wine fasting is good, Use Meats that are moderately hot, for the best physick is warm diet, warm Cloathes, good…
The Book Trunk 