Post a comment
Your Information
(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)
Categories
- About Cornflower Books (2)
- About the Cornflower Book Group (1)
- At the writing desk (6)
- Biography and memoir (334)
- Book Group books (118)
- Books (6)
- Books - C18th. fiction (1)
- Books - C19th. fiction (6)
- Books - contemporary fiction (398)
- Books - early C20th. fiction (154)
- Books - late C20th. fiction (144)
- Books - Victorian fiction (29)
- Books about books (73)
- Bookshops and libraries (126)
- Children's and young adult books (165)
- Cornflower Blues - books of the year (24)
- Cornflower in conversation (10)
- Cover design (55)
- Cover design and illustration (75)
- Detective fiction (136)
- First impressions (6)
- Good lines (206)
- Good words (15)
- Have you read ...? (40)
- Historical fiction (223)
- Literary festivals (71)
- Literary locations (11)
- Literary prizes (127)
- Literature in translation (47)
- Miscellaneous (723)
- Non-fiction (297)
- Period/historical fiction (486)
- Poetry (48)
- Reading habits (123)
- Short stories (45)
- To be read (251)
- Writers' dogs (6)
- Writers' houses (28)
- Writers' portraits (31)
- Writing and publishing (194)
2025
- 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
« Child's play | Main | Friday reads: a class act »
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Verify your Comment
Previewing your Comment
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Current reading:
- Deborah Lawrenson: The Secretary
Blackwell's
The Reading Map - and links to all reviews
Search
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.
A request
- If you wish to use any original images or content from this site, please contact me.
Acquisitions
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
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
Mrs Tiggywinkle is missing a great favourite of mine and The Tale of Jeremy Fisher. My sister had a copy of Mrs Tiggywinkle in ita …..a phonetic way of learning to read in the infant department of the school she went to in 1968. She was a great reader all her life.
Posted by: Marybel Tracey | 13 September 2023 at 06:34 PM
How intriguing to see the biographies, as well as the books. An unexpected glimpse into Mercury's interests.
Posted by: Rosie S | 14 September 2023 at 03:40 AM
I wonder how much if they hadn't belonged to Freddie Mercury? Can't say that adds any value at all as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by: Mary | 16 September 2023 at 11:27 PM