... the excellent A Clerk of Oxford, take a look at today's post which is typically full of knowledge, interest, and the magic of words.
Categories
- About Cornflower Books (2)
- About the Cornflower Book Group (1)
- At the writing desk (6)
- Biography and memoir (303)
- Book Group books (116)
- Books (3)
- Books - C18th. fiction (1)
- Books - C19th. fiction (5)
- Books - contemporary fiction (382)
- Books - early C20th. fiction (133)
- Books - late C20th. fiction (126)
- Books - Victorian fiction (29)
- Books about books (65)
- Bookshops and libraries (124)
- Children's and young adult books (146)
- Cornflower Blues - books of the year (22)
- Cornflower in conversation (10)
- Cover design (53)
- Cover design and illustration (73)
- Detective fiction (130)
- First impressions (6)
- Good lines (194)
- Good words (15)
- Have you read ...? (39)
- Historical fiction (199)
- Literary festivals (69)
- Literary locations (11)
- Literary prizes (120)
- Literature in translation (47)
- Miscellaneous (715)
- Non-fiction (274)
- Period/historical fiction (454)
- Poetry (46)
- Reading habits (120)
- Short stories (42)
- To be read (249)
- Writers' dogs (6)
- Writers' houses (26)
- Writers' portraits (30)
- Writing and publishing (175)
2021
Martin Gayford: Spring Cannot be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy
Kevin Telfer: Peter Pan's First XI: The Extraordinary Story of J.M. Barrie's Cricket Team
Patricia & Robert Malcolmson (eds): A Vicar's Wife in Oxford, 1938-1943: The Diary of Madge Martin
Ursula Buchan: A Green and Pleasant Land: How England’s Gardeners Fought the Second World War
John Harris: The Natural Gardener: A Lifetime of Gardening by the Phases of the Moon
Benedict Macdonald & Nicholas Gates: Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden
2020
Alex Preston & Neil Gower: As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books
Adrian Tinniswood: The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars
Jennifer Kloester: Georgette Heyer: The Biography of a Bestseller
Julie Summers: Our Uninvited Guests: The Secret Life of Britain's Country Houses 1939-45
Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson: The Science of Meditation
Artemis Cooper: Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence
Peter Fiennes: Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers
2019
Tom Mole: The Secret Life of Books: Why They Are More Than Words
The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter
Dorothy Dunnett: The Game Of Kings: The Lymond Chronicles Book One
- Elisabeth De Waal: Milton Place
Louise DeSalvo: Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, & Creativity
Katherine Rundell: Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise
Esther Rutter: This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History
Ursula Buchan: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan
Will Williams: The Effortless Mind: Meditation for the Modern World
Allan Ahlberg: The Bucket: Memories of an Inattentive Childhood
Kamin Mohammadi: Bella Figura: How to Live, Love and Eat the Italian Way
Esther De Waal: Living on the Border: Reflections on the Experience of Threshold
2018
Kate Humble: Thinking on My Feet: The small joy of putting one foot in front of another
Ryder Carroll: The Bullet Journal Method: Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Plan Your Future
Susan David: Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change and Thrive in Work and Life
Rachael Matthews: The Mindfulness in Knitting: Meditations on Craft and Calm
Drabble et al.: Writers as Readers: A Celebration of Virago Modern Classics
Melissa Harrison, ed.: Spring: An Anthology for the Changing Seasons
Laura Freeman: The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite
2017
- John Hackett: I Was a Stranger
Susan Hill: Jacob's Room is Full of Books: A Year of Reading
Pete Brown: The Apple Orchard: The Story of Our Most English Fruit
Héctor García & Francesc Miralles: Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life
Ken Mogi: The Little Book of Ikigai: The essential Japanese way to finding your purpose in life
John Eliot Gardiner: Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach
Rosamond Richardson: Waiting for the Albino Dunnock: How birds can change your life
Michael Morpurgo: Singing for Mrs Pettigrew: A Storymaker's Journey
Nagisa Tatsumi: The Art of Discarding: How to get rid of clutter and find joy
Henry Marsh: Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
A S Byatt: Peacock and Vine: Fortuny and Morris in Life and at Work
Roger Lancelyn Green: Tellers of tales: children's books and their authors from 1800-1964
2016
2015
Humphrey Carpenter: Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature
Linda Lear: Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary life of a Victorian genius
James Rebanks: The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District
Ann Morgan: Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer
Alexander McCall Smith: A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh
2014
Vita Sackville-West & Sarah Raven: Vita Sackville-West's Sissinghurst: The Creation of a Garden
Philip Walling: Counting Sheep: A Celebration of the Pastoral Heritage of Britain
Wendy Cope: Life, Love and the Archers: Recollections, Reviews and Other Prose
Matthew Dennison: Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West
Kevin Crossley-Holland: The Hidden Roads: A Memoir of Childhood
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
2013
Stewart MacKay: The Angel of Charleston: Grace Higgens, Housekeeper to the Bloomsbury Group
Caroline Zoob: Virginia Woolf's Garden: The Story of the Garden at Monk's House
Carolyne Larrington & Diane Purkiss: Magical Tales: Myth, Legend and Enchantment in Children's Books
Gyles Brandreth: The 7 Secrets of Happiness: An Optimist's Journey
Joan Bodger: How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books
Emily Rapp: The Still Point of the Turning World: A Mother's Story
Jon McGregor: This Isn't The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You
Robert Macfarlane: Mountains of the Mind: a History of a Fascination
2012
Alexander McCall Smith: Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey
Jean-Claude Ellena: The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur
Kate Summerscale: Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady
Alexander McCall Smith: The Limpopo Academy Of Private Detection
James Runcie: Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (The Grantchester Mysteries)
Wendy Jones: The Thoughts & Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals
2011
Lyndall Gordon: Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds
Ann Patchett: The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life
Oliver Burkeman: Help!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done
Molly Peacock: The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
Robertson Davies: The Cornish Trilogy - Vol. I: The Rebel Angels
David Allen: Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity
- Averil Stewart: 'Alicella': A Memoir of Alice King Stewart and Ella Christie
Robert Sackville-West: Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles
Edmund de Waal: The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
Amanda Vickery: Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England
Cornflower book group
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
~ For discussion from Saturday, 25th. April
Please note
- Sidebar book cover thumbnail pictures are affiliate links to Amazon, and the storefront links to Blackwell's and The Book Depository are also affiliated; should you purchase a book directly through those links, I will receive a small commission. Older posts may also contain affiliate links to one of those bookshops. I am not paid to produce content and all opinions are my own.
Current reading:
Blackwell's
The Reading Map - and links to all reviews
Search
A request
- If you wish to use any original images or content from this site, please contact me.
Arrivals
The Book Depository
Bookshops
Writers
- A Book from the Beginning - Samantha Shannon
- Alan Bradley
- Claire King
- Alexander McCall Smith
- Author: Sue Gee - Salt
- Clare Clark
- D.J. Taylor
- Deborah Lawrenson
- Do You Write Under Your Own Name? - Martin Edwards
- Jane Rusbridge
- Kate Forsyth
- Linda Gillard
- Madeline Miller
- Michelle Lovric
- Rosy Thornton
- Sarah Salway
- Susan Hill
- Susie Vereker
- Suzanne Joinson
- The Adele Geras Web Site
- The History Girls
- The Wonderful World of Joan Aiken
- Tracy Chevalier
- William Boyd
- William Nicholson – Screenwriter, playwright and novelist
Readers
- A Clerk of Oxford
- A Work in Progress
- AnnaBookBel
- Austenonly | Jane Austen's life, times and works explained and discussed
- Book Barmy | Books, Musings & Travels
- BooksPlease
- Bookwitch
- Cosy Books
- Desperate Reader
- dovegreyreader scribbles
- FURROWED MIDDLEBROW
- Geranium Cat's Bookshelf
- Gudrun's Tights
- Harriet Devine's Blog
- I prefer reading
- Juxtabook
- Lesley's Book Nook
- Letters from a hill farm
- Life must be filled up
- Mary Queen of Plots – The writing of Mary Stewart (1916-2014)
- MarysLibrary
- mrs miniver's daughter
- Nonsuch Book
- Our Quiet Life In Suffolk
- Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover
- Stuck In A Book
- Tales from the Reading Room
- The Provincial Reader
- Vintage Reads
Publishers
- 4th Estate
- Alma Books
- Birlinn
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Eland Books
- Faber & Faber
- Gallic Books
- HarperCollins
- Hodder
- Icon Books
- John Murray
- Little Toller
- Little, Brown
- Oneworld Classics
- Orion
- Oxford World's Classics
- Peirene Press
- Penguin Books
- Persephone Books
- Peter Owen Publishers
- Polygon
- Quercus Books
- Sceptre
- Serpent's Tail Books
- Slightly Foxed
- Two Roads
- Virago - International publisher of books by women
- W&N
Literary publications
Cornflower Book Group: read
2010
Patricia Duncker: The Strange Case of the Composer and His Judge
Adrienne Martini: Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously
Piers Moore Ede: All Kinds of Magic: A Quest for Meaning in a Material World
Matt McAllester: Bittersweet: Lessons from My Mother's Kitchen
Sue Prichard: Quilts 1700 - 2010: Hidden Histories, Untold Stories
Jane Robinson: Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education
Michael Faulkner: Still on the Sound: A Seasonal Look at Island Life
Michael Faulkner: The Blue Cabin: Living by the Tides on Islandmore
2009
Robyn Scott: Twenty Chickens for a Saddle: The Story of an African Childhood
Laurence Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Susan Hill: Howards End is on the Landing: A year of reading from home
Joyce Dennys: Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 (Bloomsbury Group)
Alexander McCall Smith: The Lost Art of Gratitude: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel
- Jean Giono: The Man Who Planted Trees
Mary Ann Shaffer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Claire Harman: Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World
Alexander McCall Smith: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
- Joyce Dennys: Henrietta's War
- Joyce Dennys: Henrietta Sees it Through
- Patrick McCabe: The Holy City
- E.F. Benson: Lucia in London