charles barrow's writing

I went in search of Peter Pan. The statue of Peter Pan, that lives in Kensington Gardens, the large green space in London that used to be the private gardens of Kensington Palace, but are now freely accessible to all. If your image of Peter is got solely from Walt Disney's 1953 animated film Peter Pan, then you'll picture a young boy dressed in Lincoln Green - tights and jerkin, with pixie boots and a cap with a jaunty feather. I mention Lincoln Green, specifically, because Peter's outfit calls to mind that other folk lore/fictional character, depicted in many a film, Robin Hood, who dressed in that particular shade of green. You'll see the resemblance between Peter's outfit and that of Errol Flynn's Robin, in the live action 1938 film, and also the same character, as played by a fox, in Disney's own animated Robin Hood from 1973. So my mental image of Peter Pan resembled nothing so much as a pint sized version of the outlaw from Sherwood Forest. Poster imag...

This is a companion post to my last one, 52 in 25, and it details the 26 books I definitely plan to read this year. I'll spread them out across the year, and drop other books in between these as I go. I've said it before, I'm a mood reader so I have to really be in the mood for something before I pick it up, so it's good there's such a variety of genre here. I should also mention that these are all ebooks, on my Kindle, the other books I'll read this year will mostly be physical books off my shelf. These book titles below aren't listed in any particular order of preference. Also, I've already read Yellowface from this list, and I'm currently reading Pretty, Pretty Boys, and Queen James. So I'm off to a flying start. I'd like to get to the Murakami soon, and the C.J. Sansom will finish off the series of Shardlake books that I've loved. In fact I've loved everything I've read by these two authors, so I have high hopes for these two ...

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...