I thoroughly enjoyed this, the third volume of Peter Ackroyd’s History of England, which covers a period of our history that I knew virtually nothing about (I don’t think I can really count Horrible Histories’ Charles II song as ‘knowledge’), from the succession of James I following the death of the childless Elizabeth I through to the flight of James II, taking in the civil war and the unprecedented execution of a king that happened in between. Here’s what I learned… James I of England, […]
How not to get ahead in governessing
While I may have read her sisters, I’d never so much as touched anything by Anne Bronte and so, on seeing a freebie for my e-reader, I figured it was time to take the plunge. But while Agnes Grey definitely has its own merits, I can also see now why Charlotte and Emily are the more well-known Brontes. I don’t know if this is due to them being better writers – Agnes Grey wasn’t rubbish by any stretch of the imagination – but I did […]
Enjoyable but underwhelming
I keep seeing The Perks of Being a Wallflower pop up whenever paging through Netflix and spread throughout my Goodreads newsfeed. People seem to love it so my expectations were high, but while I definitely enjoyed it while reading, looking back come the end left me feeling distinctly underwhelmed. A coming of age novel, our protagonist is 15 year old Charlie, telling his thoughts and feelings on attending high school to an unknown reader through a series of letters. Shy and very naive, even so […]
A frightening man, a so-so book
I spent the best part of the Bank Holiday weekend reading about creepy real life encounters, when I came across a post on a serial killer who called himself BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill). Although I’ve read rather a lot of true crime books, I hadn’t really come across BTK before and so headed to the kindle store to rectify that. And although this did give me all of the facts, I kind of wish I’d had someone else relay them to me. BTK – or […]