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Gliff by Ali Smith
I was thinking about the current nostalgia for the 1990s. I think there are two main elements to this: one is younger Gen Xers and older Millennials hitting middle age and looking back nostalgically on their (our) youth and young adulthood, combined with the wistfulness of a younger generation who grew up as digital natives.… Continue reading
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The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken
The death of a parent is always a seismic event in anyone’s life. It brings into focus the relationship we had with them, and the stories we tell ourselves and others about our lives and our connections. As Elizabeth McCracken writes in her ‘not a memoir’ – The Hero of This Book – our families… Continue reading
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Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Often, there are books that are critically acclaimed when they are released, and I promise myself I will read them, then, for some reason, I forget all about them. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford is one such book. I finally got round to reading it after spotting it on the shelves in one of my… Continue reading
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Waverley by Sir Walter Scott
In my effort to fill the gaps in my classic literature knowledge, I’m making a conscious (potentially masochistic) effort to read novels/ authors I’ve sort of avoided. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott feels like one of those books I should probably purchase second-hand from The Bookshop in Wigtown. In fact, Shaun Bythell comes across Scott’s… Continue reading
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Lost and Found in Wigtown (The bookselling diaries of Shaun Bythell)
“A customer at 11.15 a.m. asked for a copy of Far from the Maddening Crowd. In spite of several attempts to explain that the book’s title is actually Far from the Madding Crowd, he resolutely refused to accept that this was the case, even when the overwhelming evidence of a copy of it was placed… Continue reading
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No Ordinary Deaths – A People’s History of Mortality by Molly Conisbee
It’s going to happen to all of us. We don’t know when, we don’t know how. Ideally, perhaps, it will take place peacefully after a long and fulfilling life. We might be surrounded by our family and friends, or resting in the peace of a tranquil hospice. For many of us, that isn’t what happens.… Continue reading
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Poet In The Gutter: Remembering John Baker, and 1990s York
Back in the early 2000s, when I started blogging for the first time, one of the bloggers I regularly read was the crime writer, John Baker. Like me at the time, John lived in York, and in his blog, he often detailed his life in the city. There were shared points of reference in local… Continue reading
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Following The Script: Holmes, Poirot, and the birth of the autistic detective trope
I’m currently plodding my way through a PhD at Falmouth University, combining the writing of a Cornwall-based cosy-adjacent crime novel with an extended piece of critical work. At the end of June 2025, my first PhD paper was discussed at the university’s summer research symposium. It provides a detailed introduction to the critical aspect of… Continue reading
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Reading, mostly
“The days were quiet. They did not feel particularly quiet or happy but through them ran the sense, like an underground river, that there would come a time when these days would be looked back on as happiness, all that life could give of contentment and peace.” John McGahern, That They May Face The Rising Sun… Continue reading
Quite Bookish
I read a lot and write about some of it. Mostly books (of all sorts), sometimes other things too.