LGBT History Festival

A few weeks ago I discovered that Shrewsbury – not far from me – was holding a festival in celebration of LGBT History Month. Officially called “Back In Time 2” (on account of it being the 2nd such festival held in Shrewsbury), it was a lovely mixture of formal and semi-formal …

Politics & Paranoia

A lot of recent UK and US political events have made me feel ashamed to be a member of Western culture: the prejudice which has abounded, in many cases seemingly unchecked, is a frightening confirmation of how selfish, arrogant, and downright despicable humans can be. I sometimes feel like yelling …

Chocolat

Fourth of the five books I chose for the “Read 5 books in January” challenge, “Chocolat” by Joanne Harris has been on my list of “books I should read at some point” for well over a decade. The main reason it’s languished there so long is that I watched the film …

A View across the Valley

“A View across the Valley: Short Stories by Women from Wales c. 1850-1950” was one of the first Honno books I added to my wishlist after attending their 30th birthday celebration last September. One of the speakers, talking about the diversity of the Honno Classics series, spoke quite movingly about …

Gaudy Night

I’m not sure I should admit this, given the company I often keep at writerly events, but… Gaudy Night is the first of Dorothy L Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries I have ever read! I’ve been aware of his importance in the canon of literary detectives, and have occasionally heard part of …

Lebkuchen recipe

I’ve been asked a few times this year for “my” lebkuchen recipe, and I feel like a bit of a cheat claiming it as “mine” as, compared to other favourite recipes, I’ve done very little to change it and make it my own. If you’d like to check the differences …

Beguiling Miss Bennet

So I finished the first of my 5 Books for January. Beguiling Miss Bennet is collection of Austen-inspired short stories published by Honno Press. I added it to my Amazon wishlist after being impressed by Honno’s attitude and values when I attended their 30th birthday shindig back in September. But that’s …

Recap & reflections

So, with the hangover dealt with, and the Bank Holiday sliding from ‘afternoon’ to ‘evening’, I figured I’d jot down some of the thoughts I’ve had… 2016, in the Lindsey household, has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. Ignoring politics (because I just don’t want to go there… more later). This …