A Date With . . . Denzil Walton
Being in nature is such fun! Adults can’t fail to be inspired themselves when they see and share in a child’s amazement and wonder at the natural world around us. Continue reading A Date With . . . Denzil Walton
Category: Reviews
Don’t Spare the Horses
In case Sally’s description and Lesley’s review posted in Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore below don’t convince you to buy this book, here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2471099115 via Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – New Book on the Shelves – #WWI drama – The Dandelion Clock by Rebecca Bryn. Continue reading Don’t Spare the Horses
Writers and Readers don’t always Understand Each Other
This post from Rebecca Bryn resonated with me because I recently received a couple of critical reviews of Strongbow’s Wife. In one case the writer of the review kindly e-mailed me pointing out a couple of minor period details that I got wrong. The other claimed to have had his faith in the book destroyed by the appearance of a minor character who aspired to write ‘poetry in the Greek fashion’. Impossible in Medieval Britain according to my critic. Trouble is he was a real person who did indeed write epic poetry emulating Homer. Rebecca is definitely one of my … Continue reading Writers and Readers don’t always Understand Each Other
Falling in Love With Love
From the near operatic style of traditional Irish ballads, sung in Irish, at the commencement of the set, through swinging jazz standards, to the raw harshness of an alcoholic’s diatribe in Gershwin’s Vodka, [Conway] brings a poet’s sensibility to every number. Continue reading Falling in Love With Love
Suzanne Savage: Singing Sensation
delightful echoes of Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne . . . a unique and wonderful sound to savour. Continue reading Suzanne Savage: Singing Sensation
Not At All Crooked Hillary
I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like to have to listen to taunts of ‘Crooked Hillary’ and ‘Lock her up’ from her opponents, knowing she had done nothing wrong Continue reading Not At All Crooked Hillary
I HAD A DREAM
Originally posted on lucinda E Clarke:
I had a dream last night, not as earth shattering as Martin Luther King, I’m not that famous and important, and frankly although I was standing on a stage too, no one was listening to me. Sad isn’t it? Now most of us might dream of receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature and then being interviewed on a national Breakfast Show, simpering as the interviewer gushed about our brilliant book – right? Well, my dream wasn’t like that. The stage morphed into a television studio and my interview went something like this: INT: So,… Continue reading I HAD A DREAM
Review: “Creating Freedom: Power, Control and the Fight for Our Future” by Raoul Martinez
A review, from Liberal Democrat writer Christoph Fischer of an important book that debunks our ideas about freedom. Continue reading Review: “Creating Freedom: Power, Control and the Fight for Our Future” by Raoul Martinez
Writing About Adoption
An Affair With my Mother by Caitriona Palmer (Memoir) A Second Life by Dermot Bolger (Fiction) I wanted to read these books when the opportunity came, in order to see if my treatment of the subject in Honest Hearts and Transgression was authentic. Both books deal with adoption as experienced in Ireland in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. This was a period during which any young Irish woman who conceived out of wedlock was regarded as a pariah. Her child was taken from her and provided with a good, usually middle class, home. The mother would be ostracised by her … Continue reading Writing About Adoption
Meditations on Mortality
People talk a lot about “bucket lists”: the things you’d like to see and do before you die. Too often these take on a selfish tone with a desire to see some of the wonders of the world. Kalanithi’s book reminds us that it is what we leave behind us that is most important; what we’ve achieved, not where we have been or what we have seen Continue reading Meditations on Mortality
