A long long time ago, when I was a little chick, not even a chick but a pink and naked thing, a scar a scrap a scrape fallen on roots and wriggling, when I was catching my death and all I knew of s…| This Reading Life
The day it happened, Arlie wasn’t paying attention. An owl had visited, that was the problem, but Arlie had forgotten. It is going to be very difficult to top the three insightful and engagin…| This Reading Life
Henry Thomas Austen (8th June 1771 – 12th March 1850) wrote two memoirs, or biographical notices, about his sister Jane. The first one was written in 1818 just after her death and was included…| This Reading Life
Friday, 7 November. Concarneau is empty. The lighted clock in the Old Town glows above the ramparts; it is five minutes to eleven. The tide is in, and the south-westerly gale is slamming the boats …| This Reading Life
The practical test for my CAPES examination took place at a lycée in Lyon, in the Croix-Rousse area. A new lycée, with potted plants in the buildings for the teaching and administrative staff, and …| This Reading Life
No one noticed what was happening. No one suspected that something serious was taking place in the small station’s waiting room, where only six passengers sat dejectedly among odours of coffee, bee…| This Reading Life
It seemed an unlikely choice, this large establishment in the financial district, so that I stood outside and checked the address, the name of the restaurant, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Bu…| This Reading Life
My Dearest Ruby, – We got back from Loch Sween last night. It was still raining there when we left, and we reached home in a downpour. To-day it rains steadily. A wet Glasgow Sunday! The Brit…| This Reading Life
Artwork by Julia Soboleva On the 25th March 18–, a very strange occurrence took place in St Petersburg. On the Ascension Avenue there lived a barber of the name Ivan Jakovlevitch. He had lost…| This Reading Life
At the sunset hour of one warm spring day two men were to be seen at Patriarch’s Ponds. The first of them – aged about forty, dressed in a greyish summer suit – was short, dark-ha…| This Reading Life
Paris in July 2025 #parisinjuly2025 (Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter) At France Book Tours we are preparing to welcome you all in Paris in July 2025! Paris in July 2024 was very su…| Words And Peace
Before I knew what I was, I lived with my brothers in a grand old house in the heart of the New Forest. It had blue velvet curtains full of dust, and fire surrounds painted like marble to fool the …| This Reading Life
About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be…| This Reading Life
A biting wind swept through an open window at the end of the hall where Mary kept vigil outside her mother’s bedroom. The month of May had been mean thus far to the rural market town of Bever…| This Reading Life
Sunlight floods the room from the bay windows, reflects off the wide, honey-coloured floorboards and casts an emerald glow over the perforate leaves of a monstera shaped like a cloud. After I finis…| This Reading Life
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. I have reread Pride and Prejudice so many times I have lost count, but we must b…| This Reading Life
Blackboards chalked ‘Positions Vacant’ hang against the wall. She feels like she has walked all morning to get here. She hurries past loiterers with worn faces and sagging hats. They sp…| This Reading Life
The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their property, where, for many generations, they had lived…| This Reading Life
Reading Jane Austen If people like to read their books, it is all very well, but to be at so much trouble in filling great volumes, which, as I used to think, nobody would willingly ever look into,…| This Reading Life
