Author Archives: Beth Wren
Exploring Dresden: Frauenkirche
So I am now a resident of Dresden, complete with host German family, real German children to look after, and an official residency confirmation from the town hall. It’s not even been a week yet, but I’ve already found plenty of time to to learn how to say important words like ‘blueberry muffin’ and ‘mole’ […]
Packing for Dresden
The essentials: 1. Vans, mint green coloured. 2. Oversized comfy jumper from H&M. 3. Notebooks and pen. 4. Cute cards from friends. 5. Cath Kidston luggage tag, a present from a friend. 6. Passport. 7. Kindle. 8. German dictionary, old and battered. 9. PROPER TEA.
An Ode to York
On Saturday I am moving to Dresden and in this way I will be starting a new chapter in my life. But before I turn these new pages, I must first finish an old chapter. A dusty old chapter full of Medieval architecture, cobbled streets, cosy coffee shops, and a huge Gothic cathedral. I am, […]
Review: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Boy, did it take me a long time to finish this one. I really knew absolutely nothing about this book, or Hemingway, before I picked it up and it subsequently took me a while to get into Hemingway’s style of war narrative, including frequent phrases and sentences kept in untranslated Spanish. Set during the Spanish […]
Graduating and Other Grown Up Things
Hello! Where have I been? You may be wondering. Probably not actually. Rather than indulge myself with thoughts of teary-eyed readers weeping at my lack of online presence, the happenings of my shall hereby be recorded in this post for cathartic purposes only. Things what I did after I had to read a lot of books. […]
I Got a Kindle and Then I Read Paper Towns by John Green
So I think that the title really sums up what I’m about to say… I was very fortunate to receive a Kindle as an early graduation present, and in my literary-induced excitement, I bought the first book I could think of: Paper Towns by John Green. I then proceeded to read said book, partially because […]
Review: Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time, and completing The Return of the Native last summer only whetted my appetite for some more Hardy. If you don’t know what Tess of the d’Urbervilles is about, then you must have somehow managed to avoid, like I did, any spoilers for a text widely studied […]
A Bucketful of Tears and The Fault in Our Stars
It was pretty inevitable that I would cry at The Fault in Our Stars. I cried at the book, I cried at the advert and I cried at the songs. So, yes, I cried at the film. A lot. There was a huge amount of hype surrounding the film adaptation of John Green’s best-selling novel […]
A Week in the Lake District
To celebrate the end of exams, dissertations and, in turn, university (eek!), my friends and I planned a trip to the Lake District to stay in a small cottage not far from Windermere. It was an amazing week, complete with terrible map reading, unexpected mountain climbing, excessive tea drinking, no phone signal or internet, and, […]
‘unavoidably detained by the world’ – Review: Stardust, Neil Gaiman
Have been unavoidably detained by the world. Expect us when you see us. And so I celebrate finishing my degree with some words that I feel will serve me well in the coming months. I’ve never read any Neil Gaiman before, and despite feeling like I knew a lot about him (graphic novels and Doctor […]
Bethany Wren 