Book review. East West Street, by Philippe Sands This is the best book I read in 2018. You might initially mistake it for a wartime thriller, with a Shakespearean twist. A mysterious woman from Norfolk travelled to Vienna in the summer of 1939 to pick up a one year old child and deposit her in… Continue reading
Browsing Category Everything else
Carpe Diem – how to have a good day, every day
“There are many different ways to interpret the two words that have touched so many aspects of human culture. So many people know what they mean in Latin, and yet don’t apply them often enough in their everyday lives.” This is the time for good intentions, clean slates, things to do purposefully listed, firm resolution…. Continue reading
Writing Aylesbury out of a children’s classic: how important are real places in literature?
When The Story of Holly and Ivy was first published, it was set in the Buckinghamshire market town of Aylesbury. In later editions the location was switched to the made-up Appleton. Has the book lost something as a result? “And where does your grandmother live?” asks a gentleman in the train compartment. “In Aylesbury”, answers Ivy. “Yes,… Continue reading
Turkish writer Elif Şafak at Cambridge Literary Festival
Elif Şafak talked to Maureen Freely at the Cambridge Literary Festival, Saturday, November 24th Her latest book Three Daughters of Eve is set in Oxford and Istanbul and focusses on three Muslim women, several men, and one big question. Two university cities, both equally celebrated. But one of them far outpaces the other as… Continue reading
Sobers six hit perfection at Swansea: That was the Day
50 years today, on Saturday, August 31st, 1968, Garfield Sobers became the first player in the history of cricket to hit every ball of an over for six. I was lucky enough to have been there. Sobers was captaining Nottinghamshire that day, in a county game against Glamorgan. His feat, which no other batsman had… Continue reading
Garfield Sobers – genius on a Swansea cricket pitch
Garfield Sobers, by any estimation, was a genius. England fast bowler Fred Trueman described him as a “sublime left-hand batsman” who was “one of the greatest cricketers ever to have graced the game, certainly the greatest all-rounder”. This is the sixth in a series of extracts I am publishing in the lead up to the 50th… Continue reading