Month: February 2023

Shifting Sands

The Frisian Islands, an archipelago off the coasts of Holland, Germany and Denmark are famous for their shifting sands; an impediment to navigation but an inspiration for Riddle of the Sands.

Getting It Right

Yesterday’s post and the quotation from The Young Visiters last week, were culled from an anthology, Marriage, compiled by Elizabeth Jane Howard in 1997.

Published
Categorised as Literature

On Marriage

There is no greater risk, perhaps, than matrimony, but there is nothing happier than a happy marriage. (Benjamin Disraeli, from a letter to Princess Louise on her engagement, 1870)

In Hazard

What novels were published in 1938?

Published
Categorised as Literature

Taking the Piss

Number 56 is supplied by Thames Water – indeed it probably really is Thames river water that has been filtered.

Published
Categorised as Local

A Proposale

In which the hero proposes to the heroine.

Published
Categorised as Literature

The Great Fire

“Exquisitely crafted … the most interesting work of fiction published this year.” (Books of the Year, The Economist)

Published
Categorised as Literature

What Ho, Haggis

This is the first edition of the first book by Clarissa Dickson Wright, published in 1996 when she was thirty-nine.

Big Spender

  My grandfather, rather often, used to say philosophically: “The weather is improving – for the worse”.