What if you had said yes . . . ? Eva and Jim are nineteen, and students at Cambridge, when their paths first cross in 1958. Jim is walking along a lane when a woman approaching him on a bicycle swerves to avoid a dog. What happens next will determine the rest of their lives. […]
Because you cannot choose the way you are anymore than you can choose your own blood. And maybe I’m biased, but a monsoon beats a drought any day.
It’s 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She’s in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they’re trying for a baby – and she doesn’t want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to […]
Coming back to Yorkshire was like a homecoming for me. I lived in York for three years whilst at university and after a year away, it’s fair to say that I was missing – as the people of Yorkshire proudly put it – God’s own country. I can’t quite explain how much beauty and culture […]
There’s really nothing like dipping into a book feeling returning to an old friend. Comfortable, comforting, like it’s an old story you know and love. Reading The Wise Man’s Fear was like continuing on a long journey with people and places I was already very intimate with. It took a very long time (nearly 1000 pages), we got a […]
I’ve been pretty busy lately – working two jobs, saving money for travelling, trying to find a social life somewhere, becoming the ultimate cliché of a struggling writer; altogether forgetting how to switch off and shut down. During times like these you’re so busy being busy, putting yourself on automatic just to get through the days […]
Can we just talk about how amazing Brighton is? It’s like a magical land somewhere at the bottom of the country which doesn’t feel like it even belongs with the rest of the UK. The weather was warm, I had a Saturday off and I was with my favourite travel buddy. We wandered along the beach and […]
On a weekend trip to London when I had lent my Kindle to my brother and needed something to read, I picked up On Chesil Beach for sheer superficial reasons: it was thin and would fit into my already over-brimming backpack. Plus, you know, it’s so pretty. I had read it previously during my post-Atonement Ian McEwan phase, but […]
After having panic-bought flights as soon as I had arrived back in the UK, returning to Germany two months later was somewhat of a surreal experience. I had to take two weeks off from my new job with raised eyebrows of you were just there for seven months, why are you going back? And it was a good […]
Shadows and flames of people with no names. 1, 2, 3, and purge the memories of those who do not deserve to be remembered. Then you’ll feel better, I promise.
Bethany Wren 