Interview with Susan Barrett – author of Fixing Shadows and The Inconstant Husband

Today we’re lucky enough to have an interview with Susan Barrett – a very talented writer of historical fiction. I first discovered Fixing Shadows on Leena’s recommendation and was very taken with its deft plotting, interesting characterisation and the impressive dreamlike quality of the narrative. Needless to say we are very excited to have Susan [...]

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Pushkin, Part I

Half Milord, half middle class,
Half wise man and half jackass,
Half rogue, but it may come to pass
He’ll become a whole at last.
- Epigram on Governor-General Vorontsov, 1824
[the silly translation is mine]
A weird thing happened when I sat down to start writing about Pushkin. I got stuck. This is particularly weird, [...]

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The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom

Delightful! That’s the perfect word to describe Ian Sansom’s first book in his Mobile Library series. It’s rambling, conversational style is full of asides, amusing details and sound effects. Humor abounds on every page, sometimes a chuckle, other times, literally laughing out loud.
Londoner Israel Armstrong applies for a job [...]

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Going Dutch in Beijing by Mark McCrum

Part of Wilderness Week.
The cover quote from the intrepid John Simpson says of Going Dutch in Beijing:
“Airline staff should hand out a copy with each boarding-pass they issue; that way we might all understand more about the places we travel to and do a little less damage.”
One might contend that it’s a slight stretch to [...]

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The Goshawk, by T.H. White

Part of our Wilderness Week series.

Most people know T.H. White as the author of The Once and Future King, a series of novels based on the legend of King Arthur. References to the art of falconry appear throughout these books – a hunting expedition with a goshawk features in the opening scene of The Sword [...]

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An Interview with Jacquetta Megarry of Rucksack Readers.

As part of our “Wilderness Week”, we thought it would be interesting to talk to a publisher who specializes in ‘outdoors’ publications – especially walking and climbing guides – Jacquetta Megarry of Rucksack Readers.
Rucksack Readers, founded in 2000, is based in Dunblane with 14 titles covering long-distance walks (Scotland, Ireland and worldwide) and [...]

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Thursday Soapbox. Pulp Fiction: Books and the Environment (Part 1)

Part of our Wilderness Week series.
I volunteered to do a piece about books and the environment for our Wilderness Week. I thought it would be relatively simple. I usually think a bit about what I want to say and then my fingers pretty much type it out for me. I’ve heard [...]

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Call of the Wild edited by Roly Smith

Foreword by Chris Bonington.
Part of our Wilderness Week series.
Question: What do the British Isles and the Tardis have in common?
Answer: They’re both bigger on the inside than seems remotely likely from the outside.
Geographically speaking, the British Isles are tiny. They are also crowded. Speaking of the ‘wild places’ of such a heavily populated [...]

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Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey

As part of our ‘Wilderness Week‘ series:
Sylvanus Now is a fisherman, living in Newfoundland in the 1950s, ‘poor at book learning’, but who knows and loves this savage sea and land. ‘Undoubtedly, as a feathered creature shapes and grows into its habitat, so was he woven into the fabric of this land.’ One evening, [...]

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A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

As part of our Wilderness Week series…
After moving to New Hampshire, Bill Bryson discovers part of the Appalachian Trail nearby and decides that walking the entire thing would be fun. After broadcasting his intentions, he realizes he may be in over his head and that’s before he reads a book titled Bear Attacks and buys [...]

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