Mr Dickens and His Carol, by Samantha Silva (CRC #11)

Amazingly I have exceeded my intended target of reading 10 books by Christmas. Not very ambitious I grant you, but now I've been able to establish more of a routine to my reading. Whilst I'm waiting for students to appear online I can dip into a few pages. It's also helped that a number of …

Miss Marley, by Vanessa Lafaye (CRC #10)

A prequel, of sorts, to A Christmas Carol, this story focuses on the life of Clara Belle Marley, sister of Jacob. We pick up with Jacob and Clara, on the streets of London, after the death of their well-to-do parents. Homeless and poor, because of the ruthlessness of an uncle, they have to fight for …

The Greatest Gift, by Philip van Doren Stern (CRC #9)

It seems that I am destined to read nought but short stories for this challenge. More accident than design I must add. I loved the movie It's a Wonderful Life. So, to discover that, originally, it was a short story made it a bit of a must read for me. Written in 1943 at a …

Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, by Various (CRC #8)

I will admit to eating my food in a certain order. Sometimes this is borne from practicality. For instance, never cold food on a hot plate. Often times it could be dictated by an etiquette of sort - in most cases, mains before desert. And mostly it's driven by preference - I put to you …

Unfinished business

In my line of work abrupt endings (aka unfinished business) are undesirable. They occur for a number of reasons not least caused by people who don’t always understand the impact of them on both student and tutor. For those unfamiliar with this term or idea an abrupt ending is when contact with a person comes …

Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford (CRC #7)

So, we're back with some familiar faces with a story that is set around Lady Bobbin's estate over the festive period. The high jinks and capers the numerous cast get up to is reminiscent of a Shakespearian farce and we know with 100% certainty that all's well that ends well. Mitford draws on her rich …

Orkney Views and book ideas

A rather self-indulgent post as we enter Lockdown 2.0. Some views around Stromness on Sunday and Monday of this week. I hoped to get some inspiration for a plot line whilst on this most recent trip. Nothing obvious came to mind whilst I was there. It may have been because of the circumstances or perhaps …

Highland Fling, by Nancy Mitford (CRC2020 #6)

So many comments about Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons have been made when anything about Nancy Mitford comes up that I was a bit trepidatious when I started reading this novel. The truth of the matter is that I didn't really enjoy Cold Comfort Farm, which goes against popular opinion. To be honest I …