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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 as ‘The Almost Liked’. The writing is fine, the story is fine, the characters are…
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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 there he became something of a celebrity. The story of a barefoot ‘wild man’, clad…
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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 it can’t ever have been regarded as a great piece of writing. And personally, I…
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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 shot, with little or no chance to defend themselves. Many were suffering the effects of…
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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 kneeling on the rug, holding her book to catch every glimmer of light from the…
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The Book Trunk 