I’ve been trying to write book reviews recently as part of my reading record to encourage me to engage critically with the books. But I’ve found that sometimes there isn’t a great deal to say about a book, and sometimes I go through phases of not reading as much as I would like. So, to … More Book Reviews: April to May
A couple of weeks ago I went to my first academic conference, which was in Harrogate (see previous blog post). I was due to have a lot of free time, so before I went to Yorkshire I hatched a grand plan… The morning after I had presented my poster at the conference, I got a … More Finding Anne Lister
Last week it was the annual meeting of the Association of British Neurologists in Harrogate, and my first in-person conference! I had submitted an abstract on my PhD work so far, which had been accepted for poster presentation. If you’re interested, you can see it here: So last Tuesday I rather nervously packed up my … More My First Conference
Eight months ago, Nicholas and I went to a craft fair. We signed up for a couple of workshops, including one on spoon-carving. Nicholas has experience in woodwork, so took to spoon-carving like a duck to water. The same could not be said for me! By the end of the two-hour session, the piece of … More I Made a Spoon!
At our church, we’ve just started a new series of monthly events. It’s an ancient church on the edge of Dartmoor, so we’ve decided to make the most of our local history and scenery by going on a series of small pilgrimages. For our opening session this evening, I took some photos of our destinations, … More Pilgrimage
The other night I was home alone, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to watch a film that wouldn’t be up my husband’s street. We are currently between streaming subscriptions (aren’t there just too many now?), so I trawled BBC iPlayer to see what I could find, and came across A Star Is Born. … More Film review: A Star Is Born
“Never judge a book by its cover.” The stern adage rang in my head as I picked this book out of the library sale with what was probably an audible gasp. This book is stunning to behold, with its purple-edged pages and features picked out in gold. If anything it is even more beautiful once … More Book review: The Binding
This week, on our fortnightly cinema trip, we eschewed our usual action/superhero/sci-fi fare, and opted for this one-off comedy-drama: the true story of a working-class man called Kempton Bunton who stole a portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in 1961. I was truly surprised when my husband suggested seeing it (he … More Film review: The Duke
Do you remember last weekend, when we had a glorious (and brief) March summer? Well, luckily enough we had booked a weekend away in Cardiff, to visit some old university friends and their baby. It was a fantastic opportunity to take my new camera for a spin. First at the castle: Then at Bute Park, … More A Weekend in Cardiff
Unsettled Ground is a novel by Claire Fuller, published in 2021. I picked it up as a daily deal on my e-reader, purely because I read the blurb and thought it sounded interesting. In the end I found it strangely compelling, but so depressing that I struggled to dredge out the valuable messages that it … More Book review: Unsettled Ground
Cryptic Meg 