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...
My Ultimate Easy Christmas Gift: 2020 Edition
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...
My Ultimate (Thoughtful, Easy and Widely Available) Christmas Gift
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...
Decorating? Read This First…
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...
Books To Read In 2019
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...
Books: The Maggie O’Farrell Marathon
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...
Books: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
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...
Books: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
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...
Best Books 2016
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...
Weekly Christmas Shop: Six Good-Looking Emergency Books
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...
Sunday Tittle Tattle: Back on the Cooking Train
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...
Weekly Window Shop: My Summer Reading List
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...