April 30, 2020 Puzzles, constraints and cryptograms: An Oulipo beginner’s primer By Karen Langley Although you may never have heard the name of the literary group Oulipo, there’s a good chance you might actually have…
September 25, 2018 Banned Books Week – The Russians By Karen Langley “The important task of literature is to free man, not to censor him.” (Anais Nin) The banning of books is an…
August 3, 2017 Anthony Burgess Centenary – a Reading List By Rob Spence Anthony Burgess, whose centenary is celebrated this year, remarked ruefully on more than one occasion that he produced as many novels…
December 8, 2016 Fairy tales: A Reading List Selected by Helen Parry Christmas is traditionally a time of magic. Even if you’re no longer quite certain that Father C pops down the…
October 11, 2016 Reading for Food and Drink Written by Hayley Anderton Wine is a wonderful thing, a living, breathing, liquid that ages, changes, develops in bottle and glass. It has the…
October 4, 2016 Woolfalong Written by Ali Hope My relationship with Virginia Woolf had a discouraging start when I first read To the Lighthouse in my very early twenties. It…
August 25, 2016 Dear Diary… Diaries in Fiction Written by Charlotte Duff Since approximately the age of ten, I have tried to keep a diary. In fact, almost every Christmas I have…
August 16, 2016 Brexit Reading Written by Victoria In the aftermath of the historic referendum vote on 23rd June, and before we really learn what it means for all…
June 9, 2016 ‘South of the River’: A Reading List Compiled by Annabel The story goes that London cabbies won’t go ‘South of the River’ after dark – I have no proof of this,…
April 26, 2016 Reading for Student Experiences Written by Anna Hollingsworth Finite, enclosed spaces, power relationships, the discovery of independence, and the pursuit of knowledge: university as a backdrop offers perhaps…
April 20, 2016 Make it Southeast Asian By Sharlene Tan The part of the world that is known as Southeast Asia may include the fourth most populous nation in the world…
January 26, 2016 Reading Manchester By Rob Spence After the recent Budget, the Treasury published a document outlining the government’s plans for regional spending. In among the references to…
October 22, 2015 Reading Israel Written by Danielle Simpson When was the last time you read a book by an Israeli author? Yes, I thought so. If you had…
October 21, 2015 Reading Liverpool Compiled by Beth Townsend Novels set in places I recognise are a special kind of thing. There is nothing I enjoy more than reading…
October 7, 2015 Suspense with Style: The Novels of Mary Stewart Written by Lory Widmer Hess “The whole affair began so very quietly.” With the first line of her first novel, Mary Stewart already proclaimed…
July 23, 2015 Glimpses of Long-Past Summers: Four Vintage Canadian Authors to Explore By Barb Scharf High summer in Canada brings long days of blue skies and sunshine, with blazing hot afternoons and late warm evenings and…
April 10, 2015 Books for Spring: A Reading List Selected by Danielle Simpson The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Any list of spring reading surely must begin with Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April. It…
January 25, 2015 Reading Diversity By Marilyn Dell Brady For the past three years, I have been reading globally and diversely, reading books written by people of color. The result…
January 18, 2015 Reading for Other Worlds By Stefanie Hollmichel It has been a great year for space travel: the Philae Comet Lander, NASA’s test of its new Orion spacecraft, the…
October 9, 2014 A Moment for the Short Story By David Hebblethwaite Short stories are in our bones. They are often the first fiction we read or hear: fairy tales, bedtime stories –…
October 6, 2014 Reading Scotland Selected by Victoria Best You’d think everything there is to say about Scotland has been said in the media over the past couple of…
July 10, 2014 Never Mind the World Cup, Let’s Read Around Brazil! A survey of some Brazilian novels in translation by Annabel Gaskell, with help from Stuart Allen I don’t know about you, but I’m distinctly…
July 2, 2014 Reading Cornwall Written by Jane Carter It’s holiday reading time, so we asked a Cornish blogger to look at some of her favourite books set in…
April 10, 2014 Zola – An Introduction To His Books By Victoria Best The OUP’s decision to publish some of the novels of Émile Zola that have not been in translation for more than…
