Claire's Corner

Thank you all for celebrating my first blog birthday with me; I appreciated your warm and thoughtful comments. I was also interested in seeing which books I have highlighted over the past year were selected should you win my give-away; I was delighted to see so many of you coveting my favourite Persephone book, Lady [...]

The Babysitters Club

My Friend Amy is hosting a week’s events in honour of The Babysitters Club series of books written by Ann M. Martin. I signed up to post today as the series of books were integral to my reading experience as a child. Between the ages of ten and twelve I devoured all of the books [...]

Blueberry Girl

Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman is a poem illustrated beautifully by Charles Vess. Ostensibly a picture-book, the poem was originally written by Neil for his friend Tori Amos and her daughter, Natashya (Tash), Neil’s god-daughter. Written the month before she was born, when she was known as “Blueberry”, Neil was asked to write her a [...]

The Children of Green Knowe

I have embraced my inner child again this weekend, despite the disappointment of revisiting What Katy Did, by picking up a copy of The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston, following an absence of at the very least fifteen years. Like the Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess, The [...]

What Katy Did

So embracing my inner child at the weekend wasn’t entirely successful. Re-reading What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge I was wishing that I hadn’t. Much as Hilary Mantel did I found Katy’s story to be pious and moralising. Is this really the Katy Carr I loved as a child? Post accident she is so saintly [...]

keep looking »