charles barrow's writing

I read 52 books last year, mostly fiction but a smattering of non-fic too. I also read  a few comic books, and  a handful of short stories, and I dnf'd two books. I'll spare the authors' blushes - but one was a book of essays on air travel; I have no idea why I picked this up because I have no interest in this subject, in fact I refuse to ever get on a plane, so this book was never going to work for me. The other was a memoir by a big name Hollywood star, but I found him such an insufferable braggart that I slammed the book shut long before the final credits rolled. I don't know why I just spent more time writing about the two books I didn't finish, than all the ones I did, perhaps that's just human nature. Or my maybe just my nature. Ok, I'll tell you what, why don't I flag up a few of the best books I read last year, just to balance the, well, books? Orbital by Samantha Harvey. A slim, quick read. Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize. It relates 24 hours in...

Following on from my September post, wherein I discussed reading a Victorian novel, so as to participate in BookTube's Victober event, I wanted to post this update and confirm that I chose to read Doctor Thorne (1858) by Anthony Trollope in October. Doctor Thorne is Book three in The  Chronicles of Barsetshire,  a series of six novels, by Trollope, set in and around the fictional town of Barchester, in the fictional county of Barsetshire. I should mention here that you will also find this series of books referred to as The  Barsetshire Chronicles, and also The Barchester Chronicles, but they are all one (or six) and the same thing. The novels do not focus on the same characters in each novel, but characters from previous books can wander into, and out of, other of the stories, since they all live in the same vicinity. I like this aspect of the books.  Doctor Thorne isn't the first novel I have read in this series. I also read the first book, The Warden (1855) so year...

Looking for a bit of writing inspiration? A writing prompt to kick-start some ideas? Here are two photographs that I took that will hopefully help. The first is a glimpse through an open doorway and down a summer garden path. The second is an open gate into an autumnal walled garden, the greenery belies the fact it was taken in November. I'm always intrigued by an open doorway leading from one environment into another; indoors to out, from the open street into an enclosed garden. A glimpse of a garden will especially spark my imagination. Shades of A Secret Garden, Tom's Midnight Garden, and even hints of Narnia. A pathway, leading off into the distance, draws the eye towards an unseen destination, where is it heading to? What awaits me at the other end of that path? Is it something I want and need, will be delighted by? Or will it turn my world on its head, so that I rue the day? To lead someone down the garden path is to hoodwink, trick and fool them. But to wander down a win...

Autumn seems to have arrived very suddenly, seemingly all at once in the last few days. The wind and the heavy rains are dragging leaves off the trees and heaping them into soggy piles on the pathways, making a trip to the local shops a slippery and treacherous affair. And a lot of fungi, enjoying the damp and still relatively warm air, are sprouting in the verges around tree stumps, and giving off the earthy scent of decay. Indoors, I'm dusting off fat church candles, to help light the dark corners of the room at night, and shaking out the thick sofa throws I'll use for extra warmth and to draft-proof myself on the sofa in the evenings. I've already made my first pot of minestrone soup of the season, and will be swapping out my summer salads for bowls of macaroni cheese, and veg chilli in the coming days.  At the end of the week, at 2am on Sunday, the clocks will go back one hour, and the nights will draw in alarmingly quickly, and daylight will be all but done by 5.30pm. ...

I've talked about 'Victober 'on here before, though to my surprise I find it was back in 2022. It's a BookTube event that takes place during the month of October, when readers are encouraged to read a book published by a UK author in the Victorian era - during the reign of Queen Victoria 1837-1901. The last time I took part in this challenge, or at least the last time I wrote about it on my blog was in October 2022. That year I read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This year I will be choosing one of the books from the stack pictured below. Sorry the photo is a little murky and the book titles a little hard to read, but the books pictured (from bottom to top) are: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, and The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle. Last time I took part in this challenge I didn't follow the letter of the rules and I may not ...

In the latest instalment of my 'Visit Famous Writers' Homes - in the hopes that some magic writing dust will fall onto my shoulders', I took a trip to Shakespeare's Birth Place.   After my summer outings to Virginia Woolf's home, Monk's House, and Vita Sackville-West's stately pile at Sissinghurst, I finally ticked Stratford Upon Avon, birth place and life long home to William Shakespeare, off my bucket list. I mean, if you want to sweet-talk the writing muse then you really have to visit the stomping ground of the OG and Godfather of writing, don't you? I thought Stratford Upon Avon was a complete delight. From the narrow cobbled streets, flanked with Tudor buildings, to the large open grassy areas full of broadleaved trees, beside the slow running River Avon, there is something of interest around every corner. The huge theatre that is home to the Royal Shakespeare Company. Bronze statues of Lady Macbeth, King Hal, and Hamlet. Buskers quoting The Bard...