I've just finished Rotherweird. I think I'm in love. If you haven't heard of it - only published in May, I believe - go look it up. It is superb - fantasy with lots of fascinating history, science, rounded characters, twisty plot - just superb. Yes, I used that word twice. It's that good. Honest.

Five questions stolen shamelessly from carmarthen :

1) Favourite book genre?Fantasy, though I adore big Victorian blockbusters too. I love Diana Wynne Jones, Peter Dickinson (and his son, John. And his wife, Robyn McKinley)and I have certain "automatic buy" writers like Lindsey Davis and Jim Butcher. Oh, and Tolkien, of course - ought to go without saying ( Read more... )

(No, not "Dunnett", that's entirely different ( Read more... )

I am deep in The Essay currently, and working on a section about literary references. One I'm finding interesting is the heroine meeting the hero when he is on a horse - astride the mighty stallion, pulsing with power etcetc. Both Woolf and Holtby use it in the books I'm working on (Orlando and South Riding) but in interestingly different ways ( Read more... )

Again, I posted this at the dianawynnejones community and am putting it here for convenience. I wrote a partial account yesterday but didn’t even reach the halfway point, so rich and detailed were the memories shared with us ( Read more... )

I posted this to the dianawynnejones community and am putting it here for my own reference. I stopped partway through as it's late, but will post the rest, there and here, tomorrow ( Read more... )

An email from The Book People just turned up. The company sells mostly remaindered books and overstock, and is quite a good source for presents and such. Perhaps it's a good sign that these are in that category? I wish I could think so:

First Colouring Pack For Boys

A set of three colouring books that will appeal to young boys, the Boys' ( Read more... )

I've been reading Lord Foul's Bane

( The book I was warned about )

Stolen from brutti-ma-buoni in the first instance.

( A meme about reading. )

When I had my kindle, I signed up on a number of ebook sites. One of them sent me this today:

Slug: The Reluctant ButterflyParenting/Children, by Steve Copland ( Read more... )