October 2002 Archives

I spent a lot of my teenage years and early 20s reading blockbusters of various types, largely working my way through historical novels, of which I rate Dorothy Dunnett's 2 Scottish series most highly (but more about Lymond and Niccolo elsewhere). Since joining the Clapham commuting masses, the opportunities for indulging in longer works of fiction have been reduced. However, The Map of Love proved worth lugging between CJ and Moorgate, and even all the way out to Walton.

The novel deals with the story of a London widow who travels to Egypt in the closing years of the 19th century seeking inner peace after the death/demise of her husband.

A true blockbuster complete with parallel love themes, the novel also educates the European reader on "Victorian",

For once, choosing a book by its cover proved a good decision!

A great collection of short stories, themed around the scientific explorations flowing from the Enlightenment, and set against the backdrop of daily life - ordinary, and, in Ship Fever (the novella which closes the collection) extraordinary.

Ideas crop up in different guises throughout the collection - the most memorable being the part played by amateurs and women in piecing together the small discoveries and theories into the patchwork of the sciences we are taught today.