Sunday, May 8th, 2011
Daphne du Maurier is one of my favourite writers. Rather than the narrowly-defined purveyor of romantic fiction that she was once perceived as, she is now recognised as an incredibly versatile and imaginative author who could tackle any genre she turned her hand to – from historical novels and psychological thrillers to science fiction and, yes, even the occasional romance.
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
I’d been looking forward to this as something of a treat. Having finally filled in the holes in my Austen reading by completing Sense and Sensibility, Emma and the fragments Sanditon and The Watsons over the course of the last few months I had been promising myself a crack at this very well-received biography, published in 1997, next.
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
I’d had a bit of a rude awakening regarding the Civil War and the Restoration courtesy of my favourite book of 2007, An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. This splendid historical thriller is set during the period in question – and made me realise how just little I actually knew about it. So off to consult the Googloracle and track down an authoritative biography of England’s most recent military dictator. This brought me to the feet of Christopher Hill who in 1970 wrote this ground-breaking biography.