Category Archives: Uncategorized

Geoffrey Tyack, Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire

We have a copy of the original Pevsner for Berkshire (1966). It is not one of the best in the series. Firstly, it was mostly written soon after his wife’s death and his heart was perhaps not in the work. … Continue reading

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James Runcie, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death

I was recommended this in the course of a ‘book spa’ at a local bookshop. It’s the first in the series of ‘Grantchester Mysteries’ featuring a vicar with a habit of stumbling into crime and then solving it. This volume … Continue reading

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Victor Bridges, Trouble on the Thames

No plotlines have been spoiled in the writing of this review. I’ve been discovering some of the recently reprinted ‘Golden Age’ detective stories and thrillers. They are celebrated for their ingenious plotlines, but score less highly when it comes to … Continue reading

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B. S. Johnson, Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry

A few years ago new copies of a book called Never Say Boring Again, about a group of accountants, was sometimes to be seen on sale at bookstalls in suspiciously large numbers.  It would undoubtedly seem boring, however, beside this … Continue reading

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Francis Meynell, By Heart

This is an anthology of poetry intended to be memorised. It was compiled in 1965 towards the end of Meynell’s life, and this shows in the selection of poets; only a handful were born after 1914, and as far as … Continue reading

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the Gun Street bookshop

I was near Gun Street in Reading today and recalled with fondness the bookshop which used to be there many years ago. It has imprinted on me as the bookshop all others ought to resemble. I can still recall the … Continue reading

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