Posts
Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (translated by Anne McLean) came to me via a Goodreads list, as many books do. I suspect it might not be the last book to tempt me from their list of 54 new books to discover this Hispanic Heritage Month.
As the nights have drawn in and the weather has become less and less appealing, I’ve been making the effort to get out and about in the fresh air whenever possible.
As you might have seen in my October monthly round-up, we spent an incredible week in the Scottish Highlands last month. The scenery was so beautiful, I really can’t get over it. I’ll be covering our trip in at least two posts, because we covered quite a bit of ground. This time around I’ll be focusing on the places we visited around Inverness.
Was Battle Abbey really built on the spot where William the Conqueror defeated King Harold in 1066? Or did the battle actually take place on a local mini roundabout? Debate rages on, but one thing is clear – it didn’t happen in Hastings, and Battle Abbey makes for a lovely day out in the charming East Sussex town of Battle.
I had quite a few interesting looking options for Brazil but this one hit the sweet spot of light, recent and in the library. I hoped that The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha (translated by Eric M. B. Becker) would provide a bit of light relief for me, and the cover blurb promised me something zesty, beguiling and wickedly funny.
After September’s warm weather, October has really felt like the start of autumn this year. I was not ready for the end of summer till I put my first jumper of the season on, went for a walk and crunched some leaves underfoot. I instantly fell into cosy mode!
When I mentioned to our neighbour that we were heading to Birmingham for the weekend, he frowned, then asked if we were planning to visit Spaghetti Junction. I’ll grant you, Birmingham isn’t the most common option for a UK city break, as I discovered while trying to find blog posts with ideas for things to do.
Over the summer my Instagram feed has been stuffed with beautiful images of Albania. Time and money are preventing me from making a trip to Albania in person right now, so I decided to see if it was possible to satisfy my wanderlust (at least temporarily) by reading a book set there instead.
With more than 500 properties, as well as their work caring for farmland and more than 780 miles of coastline, the National Trust is the biggest conservation charity in Europe.
Canterbury is a small city in the county of Kent, in South East England. It's very old and beautiful, and you can immerse yourself in history dating back to Roman times. At the same time, it's home to three universities, so it feels young and vibrant, not like a living museum