Brotherly bonding
Maxim Gorky had a brutally hard childhood, captured vividly in the first of his three memoirs. Among other losses, he...
Mutton-headed galoots
Arthur Ransome's characters have some out of date but still appealing ways to describe their own, or others', stupidity. I...
Play more, work better
Of course, playing more with a view to working better isn’t going about it in the right spirit. But play...
As fabulous as …
A marvelously original simile for 'fabulous', found in this slim, exquisitely written book by Saint-Exupery. Something resonant in that phrase,...
For one awful moment
Timothy and his siblings run away from their strict grandmother and land, unwittingly, at their uncle's place. Ambrose is a...
Anodyne angels
These Victorian children, based on real life characters (Kenneth Grahame’s siblings) are spirited and independent minded. And utterly unimpressed with...
War wounds
Listening time: 4 minutes.
Among the warm-hearted and even funny accounts of people they met in the Soviet...
The best room in the palace
How do you impress a girl on first meeting? By divulging details of the chocolate room in your dream palace, of...
I shall teach the boy…
The Countess of Gormenghast ponders her personal curriculum for her newborn son, after despatching him to a régime of...
Podcast review – Elizabeth Goudge’s Little White Horse
Listening time: 13 minutes. One of my top two children's books of all time, I first read Elizabeth...
On writing letters
The wryness of Kenneth Grahame’s Dream Days is captured here in describing the cultural activity of choice for his younger...
As helpless as …
The wonderful little girl Maggie, in a fit of pique and sorrow, hacks off her glorious dark curls and then...
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