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

A Literary Map of London

Now for something completely different. This literary map of London turned up from one or other of my Facebook friends, and I think it is fantastic, and I love the way it uses names to build up a picture of the city, so I thought I’d share it here – I just hope I don’t run…

chrisharding53

May 28, 2015

Anna Burles. Literary London ~Art Collection, Dex, Literary London, Literary Map of London, Run for the Hills
Of Pies and Penguins…

Simple Simon met a Pieman, Going to the fair; Says Simple Simon to the Pieman, Let me taste your ware. Says the Pieman to Simple Simon, Show me first your penny; Says Simple Simon to the Pieman, Indeed I have not any. Everyone knows the old nursery rhyme, but how many people are aware…

chrisharding53

May 25, 2015

balloon flight, Henry Mayhew, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Of Street Piemen, Victorian England
Swans, Snow and a Talking Mole

Edred and Elfrida walking down the street before their adventures begin. Oh Lordy, I must be getting old. Or growing up or something. That’s three children’s ‘classics’ I’ve read recently, and I hated all of them, even though they ticked all the right boxes. Which is odd when you consider my weakness for children’s literature.…

chrisharding53

May 19, 2015

Edith Nesbit, Edwardian Children’s fiction, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, The House of Arden
Girl in the Dark

Imagine yourself forced to live in total darkness. Not the normal curtains-pulled sort of night-time darkness, but total, impenetrable blackness, so dark that you must feel your way around. That’s what happened to Anna Lindsey (a pseudonym) when she developed a severe sensitivity to all forms of light, natural and artificial. Exposure to light, however…

chrisharding53

May 16, 2015

Anna Lindsey, Girl in the Dark, light sensitivity, living in the dark, memoir, photosensitivity
The Gipsy in the Parlour

In the heat of a spacious August noon, in the great summer of 1870, the three famous Sylvester women waited in their parlour to receive and make welcome the fourth. The three famous Sylvester women – Charlotte, Grace and Rachel – are sisters-in-law who married (and tamed) three of the wild Sylvester brothers. They are…

chrisharding53

May 12, 2015

Devon, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, mid-20th century women’s fiction, Reading England 2015, The Gipsy in the Parlour

A Literary Map of London

Of Pies and Penguins…

Swans, Snow and a Talking Mole

Girl in the Dark

The Gipsy in the Parlour