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2025

  • Adrian Tinniswood: Noble Ambitions
  • Adrian Tinniswood: The Power and the Glory
  • Martin Williams: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
  • Gavin Plumley: A Home for all Seasons
  • Robert Harris: Precipice
  • Nigel Slater: A Thousand Feasts
  • Joan Aiken: Tales of London Town
  • Alan Connor: 188 Words for Rain
  • Ben Robinson: English Villages: An Extraordinary Journey through Time

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Cornflower book group

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Mary

What a treat! Your wonderful collection probably puts many a public one to shame. Thanks for sharing it through Danielle's blog.

Cornflower

You're welcome, Mary - it was fun!

Mary

Think how much you're saving on heating bills. It must be excellent wall insulation!
(The other Mary!)

Cornflower

A perfect excuse to buy more!

B R Wombat

I have to agree with Mary that that was a real treat. How I love snooping about your house and your shelves! How I envy your wonderful glazed double door. And thanks for letting us see those well read children's books. Very glad to see the Ruby Fergusons there.

B R Wombat

PS I meant also to say I'm glad you mentioned One Fine Day again. I read it on your recommendation and loved it.

Erika

Being a snoop from way back I loved this visit by blog--thank you so much, both of you.

Erika

oh my goodness--the penny dropped. Learning your last name I realize that when an elderly cousin of my first husband, both of them no longer living, mailed me his weekend copies of The Scotsman for a couple of years, it was financial articles by your husband that we particularly enjoyed. So please pass on this belated thank you for the pleasure given and the discussions the articles led to.

Cornflower

So glad you liked it!

Cornflower

That's kind of you, Erika!

Mr Cornflower

Erika, I'm so glad you enjoyed the articles! I'm sure 'proper' writers are used to this, but it does happen occasionally that people I meet mention that they've read them, and it gives me a sort of tingly, slightly embarrassed but really very happy feeling to know that some thoughts in my mind which I've thrown out into the air have actually been of interest to an intelligent human being. Can I indulge in a shameless bit of self-promotion and point out that the articles can be read on the Scotsman's website www.scotsman.com

Danielle

Thanks very much Cornflower for so graciously sharing photos of your home and books! :) Why is it we readers feel so much better seeing photos like this and knowing we are in good company (and maybe feeling a little less guilty, too) with our own staggering piles?!

Alison P

Would you consider adopting me?! I would sit quietly in a corner of your drawing room and you would only know I was there by an occasional rearrangement of your piles...

Dark Puss

You can indeed and thus I can read them too!

Dark Puss

Hmmmmm

Cornflower

Thankyou again for inviting me, Danielle; it's lovely to be in the company of kindred spirits!

Cornflower

Come on over, Alison!

Deirdre

I agree, Danielle! I feel so much better now! I enjoyed popping over to your blog too. Thanks for sharing your book shelves and book piles with us, Karen! I am so impressed ... why did I ever think I had a lot of books? But it is great to be reminded that there are other book hoarders out there!

Cornflower

I used to think we had a fairly large number of books, but that was in pre-blogging/reviewing days; now, new ones arrive with every post and the piles really are getting out of hand.

Mary

Think of me as "Mary Over the Pond"...

Mary

Thank you, Mr Cornflower, for the link..read your August 24th article where you mention "pitiful returns" for investors. Funnily (not) enough, I was gathering my US tax information yesterday and noted that one small savings account I maintain with several thousand dollars for emergencies earned me the princely sum of $1.06 (.67 pound) in interest for the year. Pitiful, indeed!

Erika

Thank you very much, Mr. Cornflower. I plan to re-read them slowly and am pretty sure that the passage of 2-3 years will have retained their relevancy. I'll also be remembering "Uncle George" and his many kindnesses to me, beginning in the 1960s when I was a very shy young person with English as a second language , flung into huge family gatherings in Scotland.

Belle

I love that glimpse of golden yellow through the glass door in your entrance hall. With Wodehouse, McCall Smith and crime novels all in a row, I could live in that spot and be very happily entertained. If you would just be so kind as to bring me a cup of tea now and then...

Mr Cornflower

Don't spend it all at once, Mary...

Cornflower

Certainly, Belle.

Alex in Leeds

I love this series of behind-the-scenes posts. I'm also ridiculously impressed by your bookshelves and the variety of book subjects/genres you've amassed. :)

Cornflower

I'm very interested in everyone's reactions and in seeing something so familiar through others' eyes! I suppose we do have quite a wide range (there is more than I listed) but it has been collected over many years.

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