Posted inBooks
Thunderstone by Nancy Campbell
Lockdown wasn’t easy for most people, but Nancy Campbell left her home and relocated to a caravan on the outskirts of Oxford. This may sound idyllic, but Campbell’s account of…
Posted inWords
Bittersweet: reflections on ‘home’
Do you want to go home?’ my partner asks. By ‘home’ she doesn’t mean heading back to the house after a trip out, as we are already there, sitting on…
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A Winter Walk Around St Ives
My eyes lighted on something dark, in the distance, on the beach. Coming closer, I saw it was a dead porpoise. Mouth frozen in a smile, skin radiating a silvery…
Posted inBooks
Light Rains Sometimes Fall
One of the many things that have amazed me in the world is traditional Japanese art and architecture, I’ve always been fascinated by how intertwined buildings and bridges have become…
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Goshawk Summer
James Aldred, an Emmy award-winning documentary cameraman and author of The Man Who Climbs Trees, has written this account of lockdown last year, based on his field diaries-kept while he…
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The Eternal Season
Like many other people over the past 12 months or so many have been experiencing Covid exhaustion, trying as much not to read the daily news of more deaths, seemingly…
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The Heeding
One of the privileges of reviewing books is that now and again a book comes along that genuinely speaks to you personally, says what you want to say, and in…
Posted inWords
Walking over Dinosaurs: A forgotten tale of buried treasure
The two high points of my geography lessons at Bletchley Grammar School were the eccentricity of the teacher, who in violation of all health and safety considerations spent many hours…