I was re-reading The Other Wind yesterday.  In The Other Wind, it is revealed that long ago the people of Earthsea made an agreement, the Verw nadan, that they would divide into two peoples based on a choice ( Read more... )

In which I witter on at considerable and probably tedious length about two books that I read, and my uninformed and confused ideas that those books sparked off each other in my head.

My Place by Sally Morgan( Contains some spoilers for 'My Place' )

I have picked a big bag of crab apples, and a smaller bag of rowan berries, and am making rowan jelly.  There are still a lot of crab apples left, so I think I may pick some blackberries (it's such a good blackberry year!) and make some blackberry jelly too.  I wonder if you can embalm whole figs in jelly?  I have got so many ripe figs, I am ( Read more... )

I have finally managed to find a copy of Sutcliff's "The Rider of the White Horse" about Thomas Fairfax (a man who I am delighted to discover, is also called Black Tom. I bet Sutcliff will give him a dog. Black Tom's Dog! For £2.50! There are second hand copies floating around still but most of them seem to be at least twenty quid and often ( Read more... )

Hey, it's Wednesday, and it's actually occurred to me to post about what I'm reading!  I keep seeing other peoples 'what I'm reading' posts on Thurs, and thinking vaguely 'maybe I'll do that next week'. And apparently, this is that week.

What I have just finished reading: The King's Peace by Jo Walton.  Dark Age Arthuriana set in a mildly ( Read more... )

I recently read "The Lost Prince" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (yes, the 'Secret Garden' lady) at the recommendation of sineala.  It's a flawed book in some ways (let us just say that the Lost Prince takes a ridiculously long time to figure out that he is, in fact, in a book called 'the Lost Prince') but it also has a lot of charm.  One of its great points ( Read more... )

A Bloody Field By Shrewsbury - Edith Pargeter : a deeply unfair and biased review by bunn.
( Read more... )

I have just realised that although I have read innumerable descriptions of situations where an isolated fort or outpost is assaulted by a wild tribal onslaught, I don't think I have *ever* read a description of a wild tribal onslaught from the point of view of the onslaughters, rather than the onslaughtees ( Read more... )

I re-read Susan Cooper's Over Sea Under Stone, and Greenwitch, since it was summer, and the season seemed right - and then it occurred to me that I'd never visited Mevagissey (the village that Trewissick is based on).  So we resolved to go and do that.   It's only about 40 miles to Mevagissey, but the roads are narrow, winding and busy at this time ( Read more... )

I kept seeing people recommending this Second World War novel, about a British agent (Scottish!) and her English pilot in occupied France. Eventually, I buckled to the power of suggestion and came by a copy. Then it sat on my 'to read' shelf for ages without quite managing to pull me in. Yesterday, I finally got around to it - and got sucked in ( Read more... )