Woman

1 min read

by Polly Crosby (£12.99, HarperCollins, HB) Romilly’s eccentric father is struggling with early-onset dementia. On finding fame with a series of children’s books starring his daughter, readers become convinced that his beautiful illustrations contain

The Paris Review

1 min read

From the cover of issue no. 136 (Fall 1995) of The Paris Review. It has been said, erroneously, that poets are cat people, novelists dog people. In fact, lots of novelists are into cats. Hilary Mantel included a photo of her cat in her Art of Fiction

All About History

1 min read

Britain in the early 1st century CE did not consist of England, Wales and Scotland as we know it today. Instead, it comprised many Celtic tribes that numbered 27 at the very least. These were not even a homogenous group that were split on political l

Writing Magazine

1 min read

Win £5,000 for a single poem in the Poetry London Prize 2021. The Poetry London Prize is a major international competition given annually for original, unpublished poems in any form, up to eighty lines in length. There is a first prize of £5,000, a s

Writing Magazine

1 min read

The shortlists for the 50th Costa Book Awards (Whitbread from 1971-2005) was announced in November. The nominated books were: 2021 Costa First Novel Award: The Manningtree Witches, AK Blakemore; Fault Lines, Emily Itami; Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nels

Family Tree

1 min read

ș England (900s–present; red): A country that’s existed since the Middle Ages ș Great Britain (1707–1800; red, yellow and blue): A former political entity founded on the union between the countries of England (red), Wales (yellow) and Scotland (blue)

Writing Magazine

1 min read

Win £1,000 first prize, and an Arvon course, in the annual poetry competition from Ledbury Poetry Festival. Second and third prizes are £500 and £250. The competition is for original, unpublished poems up to 40 lines. This year’s judge is Joelle Tayl

Writing Magazine

1 min read

The Farnham Flash Fiction competition is open to submissions of stories of less than 500 words. First prize is £75 with a runners-up prize of £25 and £25 for a Best Flash Fiction featuring Farnham. The entry fee is £5 per entry and the closing date i

The Christian Science Monitor

1 min read

Shared reading memories I was enchanted by Robert Klose’s Sept. 4 Home Forum essay, “How I became a reader of books.” It brought back memories of my more than threescore years of reading, even as a small child. Having experienced the pleasure of boo

Literary Hub

1 min read

The 2017 Man Booker shortlist has been announced: Paul Auster, 4 3 2 1  Listen to Paul Auster discuss James Baldwin, activism, and Donald Trump’s rise to power. Emily Fridlund, History of Wolves Read Emily Fridlund on 11 classics of the new gothic ca

Liz Earle Wellbeing

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by Anne Tyler (£16.99 Chatto & Windus) French Braid is the latest novel from this Pulitzer Prize-winning author: an absorbing and perceptive family saga that starts in a holiday cabin beside a lake in the 1950s and carries through to the present day.

Scotland Magazine

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1 Isobel became the first Scotswoman to set foot in Greenland when she landed at Angmagssalik (Ammassalik) in 1927. 2 Isobel slept in a snow house in the Arctic. In the winter of 1933, when she and her companion, Gus Masik were caught in a snowstorm,

History of War

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In his famous work The Gallic War, Caesar made the first detailed description of Britain. His own experience of Britain was confined to Kent and the Thames Valley but he gathered enough information to form some geographical sense of the island. He in

Writing Magazine

1 min read

The Wigtown Poetry Prize has £1,500 and £500 prizes, with £500 and £200 in categories for entries in Scots and Scottish Gaelic, for poems up to forty lines, as well as special prizes of mentoring, for the Dumfries and Galloway Fresh Voice Award, and

Writer's Digest

1 min read

The best beginnings toss readers into the whirlwind that is going to be your story right as the action begins, giving them no choice but to read further. The best endings stick with readers for years after they’ve closed the book. WD editors got toge

Horse & Hound

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HUKUM (pictured) and Jim Crowley gave Owen Burrows - Sir Michael Stoute’s former assistant who was appointed private trainer to Sheikh Hamdan in 2016 - an overdue first Group One winner when the five-year-old put up a career best to come home 4¼ leng

Choice Magazine

3 min read

THE WILDLIFE Trusts are releasing a record number of beavers in 2021 – 20 years after bringing the first-ever beavers back to Britain. Around 20 beavers will be released this year, including some to a project in Wales. The first of the year’s release

Literary Hub

1 min read

Philip Kerr’s 12th Bernie Gunther novel, Prussian Blue, is available now. What was the first book you fell in love with? First book I fell in love with was probably Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Name a classic you feel guilty about nev

Literary Hub

2 min read

Book publishing can be a tricky—and fickle—thing. Some of the classics we know and love today were instant bestsellers when they were originally published—and some were huge flops. While the numbers a book puts up during its first year in the world a

Shooting Times & Country

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On 25 May 1659, Lord Protector Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver, resigned from his position, leading to the restoration and crowning of King Charles II in 1660. Charles was addicted to beautiful women, coursing and racing. He indulged these predilecti

Shooting Times & Country

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Regarding Jamie Blackett’s comments about the “fastest growing” Scottish party, Alliance4Unity (Country Diary, 12 August), I try not to follow politics as I am, let’s say, in the autumn of life. However, I am concerned for my grandson’s future. It’s

Writing Magazine

1 min read

The McLellan Poetry Prize 2022 is inviting entries. The prize is run by the Arran Theatre and Arts Trust as part of the annual McLellan Arts Festival. Entries are invited of original, unpublished poems up to forty lines, in English or Gaelic (with an

Horse & Hound

1 min read

WON 17 of 18 starts and £253,024.70 across three seasons from 1970, including: 1970 Middle Park Stakes, Newmarket 19712000 Guineas, Newmarket; St James’s Palace Stakes, Royal Ascot; Sussex Stakes, Goodwood (pictured); Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Ascot

Horse & Hound

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BRITISH HORSE SOCIETY CEO James Hick launched the BHS’s “career transition fund” at the National Equine Forum. The scheme will offer training grants to people who have completed their BHS stage one, to allow them to progress to two and three, which t

Country Life

1 min read

A migrant to Britain from Europe 11,000 years ago and one of only two native species of deer. Iconic in the Scottish Highlands, although there are also significant populations in south-west Scotland, the Lakes, East Anglia, and especially in the West

Literary Hub

3 min read

As I write this, more than 250 million people have been ordered to stay at home in attempt to slow the coronavirus pandemic. For many of those those lucky enough to be simply quarantined and not sick (or caring for anyone who is), the days have been

Wanderlust

1 min read

Zelda Fitzgerald was born in Alabama’s capital and F Scott lived with her here in the 1930s. The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum (thefitzgeraldmuseum.org), on the ground floor of their former home, is the best place to get to grips with their legac

The Independent

4 min read

It was Caroline Weir’s hesitancy about a seemingly innocuous question that piqued curiosity about the British soccer team at the Olympics: Would she sing Britain’s national anthem “God Save the Queen” in Japan? “Just for certain reasons,” she pondere

Rail Express

1 min read

THREE of ScotRail’s ‘classic’ HST sets have been removed from service in recent weeks. October 31 saw the departure of Nos. 41136, 42047/207 and 44015, the four coaches being taken away by No. 37800 Cassiopeia as the 5L46/10.07 Haymarket-Ely Papworth

Country Life

1 min read

• There are 10 million sheep in Wales and some three million people • Welsh gold has been used for royal wedding rings since 1923 • Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the longest place name in Europe. In English, it means ‘