Yes, it's what you've all been waiting for: this year's edition of Books and Chocolate, also known as The Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift. If you're on a tight budget, if you've left everything until the last minute, if you're struggling to think of present ideas but...
Looking for the ultimate easy, not-too-expensive, seemingly-thoughtful Christmas present? I have the answer! I had the answer last year too, so this is an updated 2020 version: it's the books 'n chocolate gift. Comes in unlimited combinations, is widely available and...
AD: not sponsored or paid-for. Contains gifted press samples (chocolate) and affiliate links are marked *. We're revisiting a post that I (kind of) did a few years ago, really, but it's a good one and so it deserves another airing. Because this post may just save your...
A great decorating book to feast upon, if you're something of an interiors aficionado; Farrow & Ball's Recipes for Decorating* by Joa Studholme. It's an absolute visual delight. Whether you're a serial re-painter who loves to experiment with colour or a confused...
This post was supposed to be called My Favourite Books of 2018 but that title felt a bit tardy, so I've sneakily tweaked it so that everything's just a bit more relevant and exciting. I mean, why harp on about the past when you can look forward to the future? Isn't it...
I've just finished reading the Maggie O'Farrell novel After You'd Gone, which completes my epic O'Farrell reading marathon. I've read all of her novels, now - five of them in the last couple of months - and I can safely declare her to be one of my favourite writers. I...
I'm a terrible one for judging a book by its cover. And I mean that literally, not metaphorically - I'm not at all judgemental or presumptuous when it comes to people: just books. Which is why, shamefully, it has taken me so long to come around to reading Captain...
This is a difficult novel to write about, because I'm not sure whether I love it or absolutely detest it. Either way, it makes for interesting conversation - or would do, if anyone I knew had read it! Have you read Eileen? It grabbed my attention because it was on the...
I promised at the end of 2015 that I'd do a round-up of my favourite novels of the year and here I am, over twelve months later, with a slightly different post. It seems odd to go back to what I read in 2015, so the best picks from that year will have to be inserted...
If you're still Christmas shopping and starting to panic (I have three presents left to get, I'm with you!) then prepare to be saved: not only do many of the things in my previous gift guides come from online stores with one day delivery (get it on Friday if you order...
I've rediscovered my cooking mojo, after more than a year of being almost completely disinterested in doing anything in the pots and pans department. My fall from culinary grace began when we moved out of our house and into a series of short-term lets (seems a...
Something a bit different, this week: the books that are on my reading list. I'll be ploughing through these over the course of the summer, whenever I get to snatch a sunny moment in the deckchair or a couple of hours before bed. I've just finished The Girls, which...
Subscribe for free to get new posts and exclusive content, straight to your inbox.