My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s funny how books and TV can set each other off sometimes. A writer gets a hit book, it becomes a hit movie or TV show and that encourages the writer to write more books in the series – that kind of thing. In my case here, with Gerald… Read More Book Review: Birds, Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars I can’t remember now how I came across James Felton originally. I think it was finding his book ’52 Times Britain was a Bellend’, which I loved, reviewed, and then found him on Twitter. Since then, I’ve just come to think of Felton as being one of the best… Read More Book Review: Sunburn – The unofficial history of the Sun newspaper in 99 headlines by James Felton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars This final book in the trilogy by A H M Beattie concludes what has been a deeply personal adventure which the author captures superbly. With the first book dealing with her birth mother and the second with her adopted mother, Beattie turns in this third book to her own… Read More Book Review: The Adopted Child’s Story by A.H.M. Beattie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars Stig Abell is quite a fascinating chap and that comes across very much in this book. Almost a contemporary of mine (we both grew up in the Midlands around the same time, and he went to the same school in Loughborough as a friend of mine but six years… Read More Book Review: How Britain Really Works: Understanding the Ideas and Institutions of a Nation by Stig Abell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars As with my review of the first book in this series (‘My adopted life: A birth mothers story’), my copy of this book was given to me to review and I do so freely and without compulsion. Likewise, this was a book I specifically asked for after enjoying the… Read More Book review: My Adopted Life: The Adopted Mother’s Story by A.H.M. Beattie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was provided with a copy of this book by the author but, as always, this review is freely and independently written. Indeed, I actually expressed an interest in the book after reading an interview with the author on her Facebook page. ‘My Adopted Life’ is the first instalment… Read More Book Review: My adopted life: A birth mothers story by A.H.M. Beattie
Talking Heads by Alan Bennett My rating: 5 of 5 stars I’m late to the Alan Bennett fan club, I’ll admit. I’m also not ashamed to say that a more urgent interest in him has directly arisen from watching the film “The Lady in the Van” which I thought was brilliant and deeply poignant. I… Read More Book Review: Talking Heads by Alan Bennett
The end of the Seventies was a difficult and confused period – not just for myself having moved from the north of England to the Midlands – but for the country. Ordinary people were both delighted and dismayed with Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power as the first female Prime Minister of Great Britain for all… Read More Day 10 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Insignificant Woman no. 1
Write Out Loud 