The Book Trunk

This site is dedicated to my grandmother, who ran away from her Norwegian home in 1915 and arrived in England with nothing but a trunk full of books

The White Road

“Other things in the world are white but, for me, porcelain comes first.” Here is a piece about The White Road: A Pilgrimage of Sorts, by Edmund de Waal, which was panned by most professional reviewers, and I can’t understand why, because I absolutely loved it. I heard it first when Radio 4 abridged it for a Book of…

chrisharding53

February 3, 2017

Miscellaneous, Non-fiction

clay, Edmund de Waal, porcelain, The White Road
Books, Booze, and Gardens!

This is a Happy Post about the day in London I enjoyed last week with my Younger Daughter (the Speech Therapist), because she thought I needed cheering up! On the train there I was fortunate to snap up what seemed to be the only spare seat (occupied by a pink suitcase which was bigger than me,…

chrisharding53

January 31, 2017

Miscellaneous

books, Bookshops, cake, Gardens, London, Rhubarb Gin
Mary Stewart and An Apology!

I am SO sorry people. Way back last August I posted a piece in which I volunteered to host Mary Stewart Reading Week to coincide with the centenary of the novelist’s birth on September 17, 1916. I’d acquired a little stack of her novels (from Oxfam – where else!) and I was all set to…

chrisharding53

January 24, 2017

Uncategorized
Mary Stewart Reading Week

Next month sees the centenary of the birth of novelist Mary Stewart, so I’ve volunteered to host a Reading Week in her honour – mainly because she wrote what has to be one the best ever versions ever of the Arthurian legends. The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, The Wicked Day and The…

chrisharding53

August 22, 2016

20thC, Novels

Mary Stewart, Mary Stewart Centenary, Mary Stewart Reading Week, Romantic Suspense;
The Blush

Here we have another Virago (after all, LibraryThing’s All Virago All August is still running). The Blush, is a collection of 12 short stories by Elizabeth Taylor who, unlike Lisa St Aubin de Teran in my last post, could never, ever be accused of melodrama, although she can, on occasions, be much darker than you might expect.…

chrisharding53

August 9, 2016

20thC, Short Stories, Virago

Elizabeth Taylor, The Blush

The White Road

Books, Booze, and Gardens!

Mary Stewart and An Apology!

Mary Stewart Reading Week

The Blush