Drharrietd

LATEST ARTICLES ( 303 )

• The Goldfinch

  

  Have you ever had the experience of finishing a book and feeling as if you will never find another one that remotely measures up? That's how I felt when I got t... Read more

  Posted on 01 December 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Woman by the Window

  

  I was saying the other day that I have a sort of running theme on Saturdays, which started as Women Reading and Women Writing though it has a tendency to go... Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Bellini Madonna

  

  By a strange coincidence, the two novels I've had on the go in the past couple of weeks have both been about the disappearance of paintings by great artists of... Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Saturday Painting on Monday

  

  If you visit here at all regularly, you may know that I try to put up a painting every Saturday. It started with Women Reading, soon spread into Women Writing,... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Unexpected Night

  

  It was a post by Litlove that alerted me to the existence of Elizabeth Daly, a golden-age crime writer from the United States. Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Cats

  

  Nobody reading or writing or painting or anything else. Just cats (or rather the same cat in different poses) beautifully sketched in chalk by the incomparable... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Luminaries

  

  Let me say at once that I absolutely loved this novel, all 832 pages of it. Except that there were no pages because I was listening to it as an audio book, so... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Armistice Day

  

  I'm shockingly ignorant about a lot of things, and as today is a bank holiday in France for Armistice Day, I looked that day up on Wikipedia and found this... Read more

  Posted on 11 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Woman Reading

  

  This lovely painting is by the incomparable Gwen John (1876-1939). Sister of Augustus John, who in their lifetimes was the better known artist, she has graduall... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Two Mrs Abbots

  

  I have to confess that before I got this novel, kindly sent by Persephone Books, I knew next to nothing about D.E. Stevenson. Wikipedia tells me that she was th... Read more

  Posted on 05 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Woman Reading to Child

  

  I had a lot of trouble finding the source of this lovely image (well, spent a bit of time googling, anyway) but no trouble is too much for those of you who enjo... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Phineas Redux

  

  The property of manliness in a man is a great possession, but perhaps there is none that is less understood. That personal bravery is required in the compositio... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Man Reading

  

  This is Reading the News, by the incomparable James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902). Born in France, Tissot lived in London for much of his life, and... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Last Friends

  

  Just a few weeks ago I discovered Jane Gardham, and wrote a rave review of Old Filth. That novel had been a birthday present, and with it came the sequel, The... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Bye Bye Norm

  

  I was unbelievably saddened yesterday to learn of the death of Norman Geras. Like many people I have been reading his wonderful normblog for many years,... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Squire

  

  Imagine To the Lighthouse written by Mrs Ramsay expecting her fifth child, and you get something of the spirit of this intense and passionate novel, said... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• I'm on KIndle! (Being George Devine's Daughter)

  

  A few years ago, my childhood memoir was published. It came out in 2006, a significant year which accounted for what may seem a rather mystifying title, at leas... Read more

  Posted on 10 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Eustace Diamonds

  

  Still on my great Trollope project, I've now reached what is, I think, the middle volume in his Palliser series. I'd heard great things about this novel, and wa... Read more

  Posted on 06 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Woman with Letter

  

  This pensive lady with a letter on her knee was painted by the Belgian artist Alfred Stevens (1823-1906). I'm afraid the news in the letter was not good --... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• National Poetry Day 2013

  

  He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of... Read more

  Posted on 03 October 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE