This review begins with a confession. After committing to working my way through my most recent book acquisitions before making further purchases, I caved. One bookshop trip later, a number of ongoing reads have been cast aside, usurped by new books of demanding presence. This is, I think, both the peril and pleasure of the … Continue reading Review: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé
About A Boy is a book that I have had on my radar for some time. Yet, in a strange reversal of my typical process, I have been pretty content to restrict my familiarity with the story to what is depicted in the film adaptation. I am fully aware that, in saying this, I am … Continue reading Review: About A Boy by Nick Hornby
One of the greatest benefits of working at Knebworth House is the sheer variety of people, tasks, and events I am exposed to over the course of the Season. No two days are the same and every summer brings something entirely different. I have watched David Suchet strut his stuff as Poirot and get to … Continue reading Review: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
As mentioned in my most recent What I'm Reading Wednesday post, my decision to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower was something of a break from tradition. Having failed to spend the requisite few months on my To Read list, Perks was also described to me as a 'coming of age' story - something of … Continue reading Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This review has been a while in the making. When details regarding Dan Brown's newest book Inferno began to leak out a few months ago, I found myself growing increasingly excited at the prospect of returning to Robert Langdon's world of symbology. Having anxiously awaited its release on 14 May, my main concern was the … Continue reading Review: Inferno by Dan Brown
Charles Dickens and I have only become recently acquainted. Having avoided him like the plague for a number of years, I finally gave in two summers ago - largely the result of his connections with Knebworth House and my inability to talk with any kind of authority about his life and work. A close friend … Continue reading Review: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Refer back to this week's What I'm Reading Wednesday post and you will remember my simultaneous feelings of fear and excitement at the prospect of this review. I have little reluctance in stating that Strange Bodies is one of the most astonishing books of its literary generation - a fact that, when combined with its multiplicity … Continue reading Review: Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux
For the perceptive among you, I am sure you have noticed a slight discrepancy between my What I'm Reading Wednesday lists, and the latest batch of reviews. Much of this has to do with my exam-induced reduction of 'reading for happiness' hours, making two reviews of new-to-me reads per week super ambitious. However, it was … Continue reading Review: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
One of my more frequently pursued habits is the tendency to over-purchase books, largely a consequence of my visits to the various local charity shops (Oxfam Bookshop, you stand guilty as charged). For a bibliophile on a budget, the pull of a pile of £2 books is almost too much to bear. So it is … Continue reading Review: Chocolat by Joanne Harris
As a genre, crime fiction is perhaps one of the most divisive. For those who relegate their murder mystery volumes - likely acquired through the generous condescension of an ancient relative - to the darkest and least-visited corners of the bookshelf, understanding a love for the genre is problematic. I avoided crime fiction with an … Continue reading Review: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Book Habit 