I get a lot of email about books, writing and publishing coming into my inbox. It’s always exciting and generally there’s too much to read so I tend to pick and choose depending on the headine. Yes, I’m just like anyone else and need a good headline but I object to clickbait. Today ...
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." C.S. Lewis
Est. 2009
What is there to say about this book? Not much except that I absolutely loved it. I knew of Nancy Wake long before I saw this book, I knew a very small part of her story and I knew that she was an amazing woman. What I didn’t know was how ...
My brilliantly aptly named new series continues. Where I randomly select two books from my shelves and attempt to find a link. I do not promise it will be a good link, only that it will be a link. It might be anything at all. One thing I do promise is that ...
My brilliantly named new series continues. Where I randomly select two books from my shelves and attempt to find a link. I do not promise it will be a good link, only that it will be a link. It might be anything at all. One thing I do promise is that the ...
Diaries 1969-1979 The Python Years – Michael Palin You’ve probably vaguely heard of Michael Palin. He’s not been terribly busy or open about his work over the decades. If you ignore Monty Python, Ripping Yarns, The Frost Report, A Fish Called Wanda and his work in the travel industry writing travel books ...
An Orderly Man by Dirk Bogarde Here’s the description from the back of the book, there’s a reason I’m putting this in. For over fifteen years the film star Dirk Bogarde has been living in an old farm house in Provence. Covering this period in his life, An Orderly Man ...
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself – Alan Alda I’m presuming you’ve heard of Alan Alda so I won’t say much about his background apart from dropping the rather broad hint of M*A*S*H, a programme I’ve loved for more years than I care to think about, a programme I’ve watched ...
Gullible’s Travels by Billy Connolly Just for something completely different I had a read of Gullible’s Travels by Billy Connolly. It’s not quite the same as watching him recount the same stories on TV but it’s not too bad. Connolly seems to write the same way he interviews, by the ...
How’s Andy Going? by Alan Marshall Alan Marshall is one of our national treasures, and if he isn’t he should be. He’s one author everyone should read as he’s written so much about Australian life. Born in 1902 in country Victoria he contracted polio at the age of six. He ...
The Last Train Out is a very moving and important book about the Holocaust, it contains many details which help the average person understand why so many Jews didn’t leave Germany before and during WWII and why so many of the older generations stayed behind when the younger generations left. ...
When I was young I read a series of books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, reading a whole series back then wasn’t quite as easy for me as it is now. I had to either borrow from the library, track them down at a second hand book shop or hope someone ...
The Drums Go Bang by Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland Ruth Park and D’Arcy Niland are both Australian national treasures. You’ve probably read more by Park than Niland as she lived longer but both were equally good. Somehow they could take the quintessential Australian and put them into words. Niland’s The ...
Zachor I remember Will you? – Vera Freiden with Kathy Kaplan and Sue Newton This book is a moving account of one person’s survival during and following the Holocaust. I had the honour of proofreading it before publishing. Born in Žilina, Slovakia in 1929, Freidin was brought up in a loving family and somehow managed ...
Tumble Turns by Shane Gould Shane Gould blazed her way into sporting history, breaking eleven world swimming records and winning five Olympic medals in Munich in 1972, yet her career lasted just three years. At 13, she became a household name; at 16, she retired and almost disappeared. From her ...
What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur? That’s probably the best question one can have on one’s lips when heading into a book such as this. I’ve read a lot of books about successful businesses and successful businessmen but this is the first I’ve read about a successful businesswoman and ...