... 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.
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2025
- Daphne du Maurier: The King's General
- Deborah Lawrenson: The Secretary
- Richard Cohen: How to Write like Tolstoy
- 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
2024
- Rory Stewart: Politics on the Edge
- Victoria Glendinning: A Suppressed Cry
- Matt Gaw: In All Weathers
- Annie Gray: Victory in the Kitchen: The Life of Churchill's Cook
- Patrick Bringley: All the Beauty in the World
- S.G. MacLean: Destroying Angel
Tiffany Francis-Baker: The Bridleway: How Horses Shaped the British Landscape
Joan Bodger: How the Heather Looks: a joyous journey to the British sources of children's books
Julia Cameron: Living the Artist's Way: An Intuitive Path to Creativity
Beth Kempton: Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life
Karen Corsano & Daniel Williman: John Singer Sargent and His Muse: Painting Love and Loss
Erica E. Hirshler: Sargent’s Daughters: The Biography of a Painting
Lisa St Aubin de Terán: Better Broken Than New: A Fragmented Memoir
Donna M. Lucey: Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas
2023
2022
Caroline Shenton: National Treasures: Saving The Nation's Art in World War II
Ed. Edward Blishen: The Thorny Paradise: Writers on Writing for Children
Victoria Finlay: Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World
Fiona Gell: Spring Tides: Exploring Marine Life on the Isle of Man
Emma Bridgewater: Toast & Marmalade: Stories From the Kitchen Dresser, A Memoir
Richard Mabey: Turning the Boat for Home: A life writing about nature
Nicholas Jubber: The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales
Juliet Nicolson: The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War
- Rosemary Sutcliff: The Armourer's House
Cliff Seruntine: Seasons of the Sacred Earth: Following the Old Ways on an Enchanted Homestead
- Ella Christie & Alice King Stewart: A Long Look at Life by Two Victorians
2021
- John Buchan: Andrew Lang and The Border
Cathy Rentzenbrink: Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books
Clare Pollard: Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books
Francesca Wade: Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London between the Wars
Fiona Stafford, ed.: Stories of Trees, Woods, and the Forest (Everyman's Library POCKET CLASSICS)
Burkeman, Oliver: Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It
Nicholas Royle: White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector
Kathleen Hart: Devorgilla Days: A memoir of hope and healing
Emily Midorikawa: Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice
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
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- Sam Leith: The Haunted Wood
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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
Statcounter 2
2021
- John Buchan: Andrew Lang and The Border
Cathy Rentzenbrink: Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books
Clare Pollard: Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books
Francesca Wade: Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London between the Wars
Fiona Stafford, ed.: Stories of Trees, Woods, and the Forest (Everyman's Library POCKET CLASSICS)
Burkeman, Oliver: Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It
Nicholas Royle: White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector
Kathleen Hart: Devorgilla Days: A memoir of hope and healing
Emily Midorikawa: Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice
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
2016
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
Thank you for the link. Such a wealth of knowledge out there. I think this is where wisdom comes with age. The older I become, the more I realize just how little I know.
Posted by: Mary | 07 August 2016 at 04:06 PM
Thank you for leading me there! I clicked on Ralph Vaughan Williams on his sidebar and read the most wonderful piece on All Saints' Day (and I sang along). Oh, it makes me so happy that such people exist in the world. I added the blog to my blog list. Thanks again!
Posted by: Nan | 07 August 2016 at 06:28 PM
You're right, Mary, there's so much to learn!
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 August 2016 at 06:37 PM
You're welcome, Nan!
It's wonderful that people such as Eleanor share their knowledge so generously (and in such an accessible manner).
Posted by: Cornflower | 07 August 2016 at 06:39 PM
I was saying to my husband how like Autumn the garden felt and then opened my Twitter account to find Eleanor's link to her post. I think it was Susan Hill who said that many people find they prefer Spring as they get older but for myself I find Autumn is a time I enjoy but it is Winter I adore - most probably because the comforts of the modern world allow us to embrace that season!
Posted by: Teresa | 08 August 2016 at 04:10 PM