Mary Stewart's The Little Broomstick (1971) Julie Andrews Edwards' The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (1974) Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (1962) If I'd looked back to my childhood reading, I would have described myself as being much more comfortable with witches and dragons, enchantments and whangdoodles, than
If Oprah had had a bookclub in 1954, she would have chosen Ethel Wilson's Swamp Angel. And I say this because, despite the ongoing debate amongst booklovers about the significance of Oprah's Bookclub, she has featured many of my favourite writers (e.g. Jane Hamilton, Ursula Hegi, Rohinton Mistry, Barbara Kingsolver,
Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog Translated from the French by Alison Anderson (2006) Europa Editions, 2008 So I borrowed this as an uncatalogued paperback from the library. Sometime last autumn. ::deliberate vagueness:: I felt lucky because, as it was uncatalogued, it wasn't being tracked the same way as
Pat Barker's Liza's England (Virago, VMC #417, 1986) This month two longstanding reading projects intersect: the Green VMCs and the Orange Prize meet. Historically I believe there are four authors whose writing has been published on the Virago Modern Classic list and has also been listed for the Orange Prize
Arguably the best novel of the trilogy, for having been nominated for Orange Prize in 1996 and having won the Booker that year, there was no question in my mind as to whether I would read on following Regeneration and The Eye in the Door. Despite my habit of resisting war
