In Devon, gates are for . . .
. . . looking over, especially when they are at the end of your road.
Thought for life
- 'We are the carriers of lives and legends - who knows the unseen frescoes on the private walls of the skull?' The House of Breath William Goyen, 1975
Post-It Quote of the Day
- "I hear the noise of the chambers, and other things of the fire-works, which are now playing upon the Thames before the King; and I wish myself with them, being sorry not to see them. So to bed." Samuel Pepys
What my camera saw
July 2009
Open book
READ 2009
Barbara Kingsolver: Small Wonder (*****)
Irene Nemirovsky: David Golder (*****)
Miranda Davies and Sarah Anderson: Inside Notting Hill (*****)
Amitav Ghosh: In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale (*****)
Sarah Anderson: Halfway to Venus: A One-armed Journey (*****)
Deborah Cadbury: The Lost King of France: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII (*****)
Helen Garner: The Spare Room (*****)
Marina Benjamin: Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad (*****)
Carol Shields: Happenstance: The Husband's Story - The Wife's Story (****)
James Cameron: An Indian Summer: A Personal Experience of India (*****)
Anita Shreve: Resistance (***)
E. H. Young: Miss Mole (*****)
Pen Farthing: One Dog at a Time: Saving the Strays of Helmand (*****)
Christina Lamb: The Sewing Circles of Herat: My Afghan Years (*****)
Simon Garfield: Our Hidden Lives: The Everyday Diaries of a Forgotten Britain (*****)
Andrew Greig: That Summer (*****)
John Cornwell: Seminary Boy (*****)
Sue Gee: Thin Air (**)
Carol Shields: Larry's Party (*****)
On the shelf
BOOK BAR
Read 2008
- The Virago Book of Love Letters (****)
- Alain de Botton: How Proust Can Change Your Life (*****)
- Andrew Sean Greer: The Story of a Marriage (***)
- Andreï Makine: The Woman Who Waited (*****)
- Anita Shreve: All He Ever Wanted (****)
- Anita Shreve: Body Surfing (***)
- Anita Shreve: A Wedding in December (***)
- Anita Shreve: The Weight of Water (****)
- Anna Quindlen: Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City (***)
- Anne Donovan: Buddha Da (****)
- Anne Enright: The Gathering (****)
- Anne Tyler: If Morning Ever Comes (****)
- Anzia Yezierska: Hungry Hearts and Other Stories (*****)
- Barbara Comyns: Our Spoons Came from Woolworths (Virago Modern Classics) (****)
- Brian Moore: The Magician's Wife (**)
- Carol Shields: Mary Swann (*****)
- Carol Shields: Unless (****)
- Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist (****)
- Charlotte Mosley (Editor): Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (*****)
- Dan Rhodes: Timoleon Vieta Come Home (***)
- David Profumo: Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (****)
- Dorothy Whipple: Someone at a Distance (*)
- Dorothy Whipple: The Closed Door and Other Stories (**)
- Edna Fernandes: The Last Jews of Kerala (****)
- Eileen Chang: Lust, Caution: And Other Stories (Penguin Modern Classics) (****)
- Elizabeth Cambridge: Hostages to Fortune (****)
- Finuala Dowling: Flyleaf (****)
- Gerard Donovan: Country of the Grand (**)
- Gore Vidal: Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir (*****)
- Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (***)
- Ian McEwan: On Chesil Beach (*****)
- Ian McEwan: Saturday (****)
- Irene Nemirovsky: Suite Francaise (*****)
- Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Manor (*****)
- Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Estate (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (*****)
- Isaac Bashevis Singer: The Family Moskat (Vintage Classics) (*****)
- Isabel Allende: Zorro (****)
- J.M. Coetzee: Youth (*****)
- Jane Urquhart: The Underpainter (*****)
- Janet Fitch: White Oleander (*****)
- John Lanchester: The Debt to Pleasure (****)
- John Saumarez Smith: The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-1973 (*****)
- John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley: In Search of America (*****)
- Kate Atkinson: One Good Turn (***)
- Lalita Tademy: Cane River (*****)
- Libby Cone: War on the Margins: A Novel (****)
- Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers: The Story of Success (****)
- Margaret Forster: Over (***)
- Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (**)
- Marilynne Robinson: Gilead (*****)
- Mark Doty: Dog Years (*****)
- Mark Shand: River Dog: A Journey Down the Brahmaputra (****)
- Mary Ann Shaffer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (****)
- Michael Ondaatje: Anil's Ghost (*****)
- Michael Ondaatje: In the Skin of a Lion (*****)
- Miranda Seymour: In My Father's House: Elegy for an Obsessive Love (****)
- Natalie Goldberg: The Great Failure: My Unexpected Path to Truth (*****)
- Natalie Goldberg: Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up In America (*****)
- Nicole Krauss: The History of Love (****)
- Penelope Fitzgerald: The Blue Flower (*****)
- Penelope Fitzgerald: The Bookshop (*****)
- Peter Godwin: When a Crocodile Eats the Sun (*****)
- Peter Y. Sussman (Editor): Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford (*****)
- Richard Benson: The Farm: The Story of One Family and the English Countryside (****)
- Rohinton Mistry: Family Matters (*****)
- Rohinton Mistry: A Fine Balance (*****)
- Salman Rushdie: The Moor's Last Sigh (*****)
- Tobias Wolff: Old School (*****)
- Vita Sackville-West: No Signposts in the Sea (****)
Read, Loved (2007)
- Angels of Albion: Women of the Indian Mutiny
- Abdulrazak Gurnah: By the Sea
- Alice Sebold: The Lovely Bones
- Andrew Taylor: The American Boy
- Anita Shreve: Light on Snow
- Anita Shreve: Sea Glass
- Annabel Venning: Following the Drum: The Lives of Army Wives and Daughters Past and Present
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun
- Diana Athill: Yesterday Morning: A Very English Childhood
- Elaine Feinstein: Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet
- Emma Darwin: The Mathematics of Love
- Finuala Dowling: What Poets Need
- Helena Drysdale: Looking for George
- Hilary Mantel: A Place of Greater Safety
- Hilary Mantel: Giving Up the Ghost
- Jasvinder Sanghera: Shame
- John Humphrys: Lost for Words: The Mangling and Manipulating of the English Language
- John Humphrys: Beyond Words: How Language Reveals the Way We Live Now
- Laura Blumenfeld: Revenge: A Story Of Hope
- Patrick Marnham: Wild Mary: The Life of Mary Wesley
- Paul Theroux: Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China
- Ruth Scurr: Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution
- Sebastian Faulks: On Green Dolphin Street
- Shena Mackay: The Orchard on Fire
- Vikram Seth: An Equal Music
Read again and again...
Reading for readers
Reading for Writers
Soul Food
Jane Alexander: Spirit of the Home: How to Make Your Home a Sanctuary
Keri Smith: Living Out Loud: An Activity Book to Fuel a Creative Life
Miriam Kasin Hospodar: Heaven's Banquet: Vegetarian Cooking for Lifelong Health the Ayurveda Way
Pema Chodron: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Robin Robertson: The Sacred Kitchen: Higher Conciousness Cooking for Health and Wholeness
Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
Vicki MacKenzie: Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment
By the Aga
It's called what?
« Meanwhile, in the heart of a small village . . . | Main | On reading rooms »
May 22, 2008
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Screenings 2009
Pelle The Conqueror [1988] (*****)
Jefferson In Paris [1995] (****)
Rendition [2007] (****)
Mrs Dalloway [1998] (****)
Portrait Of A Lady [1997] (****)
Slumdog Millionaire [2008] (*****)
Little Miss Sunshine [2006] (****)
La Vie En Rose [2007] (****)
The History Boys [2006] (*****)
Away From Her [2007] (****)
Plenty (1985) (***)
Desert Island Flicks
Ha ha hee hee
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - The Very Best of Goodbye Again [2005]
"Beyond Our Ken": Collector's Edition Series 1 (Radio Collection)
- CHRIS GARRATT AND MICK KIDD: THE ESSENTIAL BIFF
Evelyn Waugh: Scoop: A Novel About Journalists (Penguin Modern Classics)
- Keith Waterhouse: Office Life
Roy Hattersley: Buster's Diaries as Told to Roy Hattersley (With a New Postscript)
Virginia Ironside: No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club: Diary of a Sixtieth Year
Music in the Air
Miscellanea
Town and country
Too Many Books?
The Moving Finger
It's their world too
Homeopathic links
- Ainsworths - Homeopathic Pharmacy
- British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons
- Geoff Johnson - Homeopathy and Veterinary Homeopathy
- Helios - Homeopathic Remedies
- Homeopathy Action Trust
- Homoeopathy at Wellie Level
- Natural Medicine Centre (Richard Allport)
- Society of Homeopaths
- The Homeopathic Medical Association
A thing of beauty
Laughing matters
YUM
LISTINGS
Think about it
They've got your number
With a little help from ...
- Made on a Mac
Looks so inviting. Is there a bull just around the corner or can one walk through and admire the view?
Posted by: Juliet | May 22, 2008 at 07:54 PM
Well, knowing you, Juliet, you'd probably take a chance. But if you were unlucky, the running would help keep you in tip-top condition for your Race for Life. Great to see the donations coming in . . .
Posted by: 60 Going on 16 | May 22, 2008 at 08:14 PM
That's a nice view! It's funny, but seeing a view over a gate like that always brings to mind that poem of William Henry Davies', called 'Leisure'. It begins - 'What is this life, if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?'
Posted by: Jay | May 22, 2008 at 08:28 PM