A writer’s reading room
During Easter in Aosta, I started reading a favourite writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor, beginning a two-volume treat, Mani and Roumeli. ...
Basilicata bibliomotocarro
Antonio La Cava, a retired school teacher, converted a quintessential Italian vehicle, the three-wheeler micro-van, into a travelling library.
For...
In quest of lost libraries
For me the world of books and libraries has a shadow world of those lost or destroyed. Surely someone could...
A café in Porto
I have never been to this café but would love to spend a morning there writing postcards and reading newspapers....
Palladian persuasive powers
Let me remember this the next time I wonder what chance there is of persuading anyone to fund ambitious cultural...
A beautiful reading room
When visiting Leeds, my original university town, I decided to drop in on a few libraries, including the hulking Victorian...
All you need is love
Another description by Steinbeck's widow of yet another of his writing spaces, which comprised mostly rooms but some other curious...
Librarian as satrap
Having known nothing but kindness among librarians, this striking description of a martinet guarding his books almost at the point...
Of boats and books
Another example of Steinbeck's search for a perfect writing spot, in different houses, places, times of his life, as described...
A bookshop in Chicago – Open Books
In preparing our trip to Chicago we looked up the 'ten best' bookshops in the city. Most proved too far,...
A luminous spot in Chicago
What makes a city great? What makes a civilization? How about a bright, quiet, dazzling new building in the heart...
Pencil and paper
Steinbeck wrote with pencil on the ubiquitous American yellow pad. Computers and word-processing came too late for him, and so...
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