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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 fascinating – and far more enjoyable than the novel, which failed to live up to…
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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 tinkling bells… “It was a sledge, and it was reindeer with bells on their harness.…
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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 with it here’s a painting, the Adoration of the Magi, by Gerard van Honthorst. And…
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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 each other across the trenches, exchanging food, drink, cigarettes, cigars and even the buttons, badges…
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The Book Trunk 