charles barrow's writing

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. ...

Reviewing my reading list from last autumn, I see that it consisted entirely of Stephen King books, great stuff, but this year's bookshelf is far more varied genre-wise, and far more diverse author-wise. A mix of ethnicities, genders and sexualities. This selection is far more representative of who and what I've been reading this year. I often look to see which authors are being nominated for prizes, and try to read the books that win them. I also take note of what Barack Obama reads, he recommends some good stuff. I've just seen a long range weather forecast for the UK, and they are warning of a long cold winter ahead. From a curl up and read point of view that is nothing but good news. Photo is the author's own.

Now that the evenings will be drawing in I've lined up my Autumn reading.