Chris Mills

LATEST ARTICLES ( 240 )

• Midsummer on the Landing Book Shelves

  

  This post returns us to the original idea behind the blog, reading or re-reading some of the books on the (admittedly former) Landing Book Shelves. Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Groucho Marx: Detective

  

  Previously, dear readers, I left you to wonder who was going to be my first example of famous person as crime-solver in my new occasional blog series. Read more

  Posted on 09 June 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Criminal New Blog Theme?

  

  I have been mulling over a theme for an new occasional series of Landing Tales blog posts. Perhaps not surprisingly, the germ of this new idea lies in my... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Flowerpot Forager

  

  As it is Easter weekend, I thought that I would put up a quick garden-related post inspired by a book that I ordered from my local library in January. Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Nature on The Landing: Bird Feeders

  

  As the weather is still tending to be generally less than springlike, I thought that I would revisit my attempts at making fat cakes for our garden bird... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• New Year TBR Pile: Status Update

  

  This is the post where I talk about all those lovely books that I received for Christmas and that now adorn my never diminishing TBR Pile. I know that it is... Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2024 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Garden Diary Re-visited

  

  As we are almost at the end of May, I have decided that it is time for another Garden Diary post, having not ventured from The Landing region to the sunny... Read more

  Posted on 29 May 2023 BOOKS, CULTURE

• One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens

  

  Today’s post sees me slipping back into library mode with One Pair of Hands, a book that I reserved after having heard about it from a borrower. Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2023 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Childhood Favourite: The Sea Witch Comes Home by Malcolm Saville

  

  This novel by Malcolm Saville (1901-1982) represents another dive into my literary past, as Saville’s Lone Pine adventure stories were once great favourites of... Read more

  Posted on 26 March 2023 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Georgian Dublin Walking Tour

  

  Following on from the Birmingham related topic of the last post, here is a Dublin flavoured piece to continue the city theme. This is one of those ‘out and... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2023 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Birmingham Art Book

  

  In this post, I’m featuring a new resident on the Landing Book Shelves, a Christmas gift no less. The book is the Birmingham Art Book: The City Through the... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2023 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Books on the Bus

  

  Crime on the commuteI noted in the last blog post that I was listening to The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (read by Roy Kinnear) on my commute. Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2022 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The New Year Resolution That Wasn’t

  

  The germ of this first blog post of 2022 is a resolution that I probably ought to make this year, should have made in previous years and in all likelihood will... Read more

  Posted on 30 January 2022 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Pondering on Those Interminable Book Lists

  

  Book of BooksYet again, I have to account for a long blogging gap on the Landing Book Shelves, as it has been a few months since my last optimistic post. Yet... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2021 BOOKS, CULTURE

• A Brief Notice: The Landing Book Shelves is on the Move!

  

  You may think that things are never-changing here on The Landing, but that is not in fact the case. There is always a certain degree of book shuffling going on... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2021 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Ireland Reads Day: Squeezing in a Read (or Two)

  

  Today’s Landing Tales post is written in support of the #Ireland Reads day, so I want to talk a little about my memories of my early reading life (once upon a... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2021 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Armchair Travelling: The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh by Chiang Yee

  

  This book was a Christmas present from The Bookworm, so it hasn’t been on the Landing Book Shelves for long. In fact, it is more of a bedside table guest, befor... Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2021 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Recipes: from an Old Farmhouse by Alison Uttley

  

  An evocative imageI wanted to follow up on the last Landing post on foraging-related books with another foody feature. This book is part memoir of a Derbyshire... Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Two ‘Wild Food’ Books: Food for Free and Wild and Free

  

  Before we go any further I would just like to say that it’s a moot point whether these books a) really count as Landing Tales reads as they don’t live in that... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE

• School Adventure: Dimsie Among the Prefects

  

  DimsieFor this post, I have lighted on a book that pre-dates the Landing Bookshelves by many years as it is one that my mother had as a child. Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2020 BOOKS, CULTURE