June 2003 Archives

Loaned to me by Jo, who'd found time to finish reading it whilst I was weekending en famille in Suffolk with TJBR, this is a Good Read for the ladies, particularly those who enjoy the Bridget Jones style storyline - i.e. reads a bit like a diary, lots of self-awareness/self-analysis, fictionalised reality - and who work in the City, or indeed any high pressure environment where male bosses and perspectives predominate, irrespective of any postulated equalitiy, or "diversity" as IDKHSDI describes it.

I read it at every available opportunity, and am thankful that the occasions when I had to laugh (snort) outloud came to pass when I was in the privacy of my own home - unlike the sections which made me cry, which I reached sitting on the 242 to Hackney.

Buy it: Amazon link

- A Journey Beyond The Great Wall -

Another traveller's tale recounting their adventures in the vastness of China that lies beyond Beijing. This time, it's a westerner (although one who seems to be able to converse and communicate to a sufficient degree for independent travel), and Stanley Stewart's route takes him by boat, train and bus from Shanghai to Taxila, Pakistan, following the Great Wall and the Silk Road, in a 20th century take on the fabled Journey To The West.

Fascinating, pleasantly unpatronising, a lovely final paragraph, and, if i'm honest, it's got the China-and-the-'Stans travel bug agitating again....

Buy it: Amazon link

I think I may be nearing the end of my Anita Brookner phase. Tales of single women (and occasionally me) of a certain age and their quiet London lives are just too small scale for me at the moment. The horizons in travel writing are set that much higher.

Still, I enjoyed this slim tale of an abandoned wife, although I couldn't help but be irritated by her rather naive attitude towards the sponging step-mother and toddler duo she falls in thrall to.

Buy it: Amazon Link

I thoroughly enjoyed this contemporary novel, with its twin settings of London and Venice, splashes of history, romance and travel. So thank you to Lindsey for getting it for me as a birthday present!

Buy it: Amazon link

This collection is written in the familiar style of Alistair Cook