so this is about semi-unintended portals, and this is one — because at one point will and lyra run for safety to a BELVEDERE and this explodes a bunch of ideas in my head PP maybe didn’t mean bcz
i. belvedere just means a place that is go[…]

it’s a reflection of the way i read — fast skim and skip x multiple reread — that i catch onto these i think: fragments in a book which exactly transport you to another, not for reasons of “hommage” (a word i dislike: it[…]

Rewards and Fairies was Rudyard Kipling’s follow-up to his extremely successful Puck Of Pook’s Hill, though it’s best-known now for containing Britain’s Best-Loved Poem, aka “If-“. My last encounter with that poem […]

Agatha Christie’s “Evil Under The Sun” and Georges Simenon’s “Maigret And The Old Lady” have a few things in common: seasides, murder, and a lady whose intelligence and good company charms the detective even though[…]

I am a poor judge of whether or not a bit of PR work will lead to press coverage or not. Take the Agatha Christie comic adaptations story that’s been doing the rounds – this looks like a non-starter to me but everywhere has covered it. I […]

It Walks By Night was the very first book published by Dickson Carr, master of the locked room mystery. I didn’t know this while reading it, but it makes sense: the style is rambling and florid, it feels like a book by someone pleased to b[…]

We interrupt yr regularly scheduled iced wafflings for an important artistic announcement:
BUY THIS BOOK NOW.
What’s it about? CLOCKWORK DEATH. Who will enjoy it? YOU YOUR PARTNER YOUR NAN AND YOUR CAT. Is it violent? ONLY WHEN IT’S ESSEN[…]

This is an expanded version of a reply to Mark S during a LiveJournal conversation about the Harry Potter books. It was written before the final book was published.
Magic in the HP books is really unlike magic in almost any other novels (kids’ […]

So I had a little wander through the snazzy Brunswick Centre today. Mainly to go to the bank, but i thought I would sniff around. And I thought I would reacquaint myself with Skoob. Skoob being a rambling old second hand bookstore belov’d of ol[…]

Most discussion I’ve seen about the upcoming His Dark Materials films has focused on the film-makers’ decision to tone down the anti-religious element. This leads to the question of how they’re going to tackle the scenes in the thir[…]