I don’t think I’ve ever felt as exhausted at the end of the book as I did just now, as I reluctantly turned the final page of the thoroughly engaging “Space below my feet” by Gwen Moffat. Ms Moffat was the first woman to qualify as a mountain guide, and …
I have never, ever been so sad to finish a book of non-fiction. Many a time I have dreaded reaching the end of a novel, but this is a first for me – when I turned the final page of this amazing book about women runners, I felt a real …
What a great read this book is, and reading it in cold, wintery conditions, whilst on holiday in the Himalayan hills of Uttarkhand in northern India, made it a perfect fit. Conrad Anker and David Roberts delve into one of the long-standing mysteries of high-altitude mountaineering, namely whether George Mallory …
First, I watched That BBC interview with Prince Andrew. Then I watched Season 3 of The Crown. And sandwiched between these 2 “royal” events, I read a just-published memoir, with lots of jolly stories about how super and smashing the royal family is. And let me own up – this …
You don’t really need the backstory, I hope, to appreciate this review, but since it might just put things fully in context, here you go. Through the twin worlds of Facebook and running, I recently met the utterly charming Chetan Mahajan, author of “The Bad Boys of Bokaro Jail”. …
Perhaps I am taking this whole “lie” thing in the title too seriously, but I was a little torn as to whether or not to tell the truth in this review. Should I fib or not ? No, you’re right. No fibbing. Tell the truth, embarrassing as it is, which …
I read this sadly out of print book a year ago, when I visited Nagaland and became fascinated with the tale of Ursula Graham Bower. Ms Graham Bower’s “Naga Path” (that is a link to my review, obviously) covers her years in Nagaland, and “The Hidden Land” takes up the …
If ever a book needed to be a biography rather than an auto-biography, it is Simon Mann’s “Cry Havoc.” What could have become, in the hands of a writer, a rather exciting derring-do, gung-ho type of book about white mercenaries trying to stage a coup in Africa is, instead, a …
Well, you live and you learn. Intrigued by the title, I found out that to describe a woman as “round-heeled” implies that she is, well, an easy lay. A whore. But absolutely not the delightful Jane Juska, who uses the expression with her witty tongue very firmly in her well-bred …
